Fallout
by Neo the Saiyan angel
Summary: A sequel to 'S Plus D Equals K'. Everyone deals with the truth of the situation in different ways. Some take it harder than others. But above all, family sticks together. A lot of D/S, a dash of K/R here and there, and a ton of drama all in one!
1. Team Go

Hego stared. "What."

Shego tilted an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'what'?" Crossing her arms and leaning back, she stated, "That's what happened, Hego. Take it or leave it."

The large man narrowed his eyes and looked at Drakken, slowly getting up from the Go tower table where he, Kim, Drakken, Ron, and the other Go siblings were sitting. "So you _took advantage_ of my little sister's-.."

"Oh _please_ , Hego, stop with the self-aggrandizing," Shego snarled, severely regretting her decision to finally fess up. "If anything, _I_ took advantage of _him_!"

"Self-aggrandiz-.." her brother squawked, sitting back down. "There is no self-aggrandizing about me! If anything, I'm self _lessly_ -aggrandizing!"

"Hego, you're making it seem like you're my protector," she explained, rubbing her head. She knew, _knew_ he would be like this. She'd just been hoping that he _wouldn't_. "I don't need _anyone_ to take care of me! Especially you!"

"But Shego-.."

"Up-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup," Shego rapidly said, forcibly shoving Hego's lips together with her fingers. "No, no, no."

" _I_ think that Shego's right," Mego said with a shake of his head. The green woman stared at him. Since when in the world did _Mego_ admit that someone else was right? "I mean, she made her choices and it didn't turn out _awful_..." Ah, _there_ was the Mego that she knew and didn't care for. "...so clearly she doesn't need you bugging her like this."

"Yeah Hego!" said one Wego.

"Shego knows what she's doing," the other Wego finished.

"So what do you say, Hego?" Shego asked, letting go of his lips.

Hego rubbed his now-red lips and said, "Well, I supposed everything turned out okay at the end…"

"Good! Glad that's out of the way!" Drakken said, slapping his hands on the Go tower table. "Now then…" He twiddled his fingers and turned to his daughter. "I, ahm…"

"Yes!" Hego said grandly, "Welcome to your new home, Kim!"

"New home?" Kim and Shego said at the same time, eyebrows raised.

"Well, yes!" Hego said like it was obvious. "You're part of the Go family. That means joining up with us in our battle with villainy!"

The room was silent for a moment, Kim and Shego sharing an exasperated look.

"I already _have_ a home," Kim pointed out. "I don't really need a new one…"

"But…" Hego boggled. "How will you be able to stop the criminal element without your family having your back?"

Shego's face met the table as she groaned. "Hego, you _don't get it_." She raised her head and said, "Kimmie doesn't _need_ you guys to do the heroing crap. She's doing _pretty_ _well_ by herself."

"Yes, but think of the _extra_ evil she could thwart with us!" Hego said, clearly picking up steam. "We could expand our operation! Join her on her adventures! We could-.."

"Sorry Hego, but it's _Team Possible_ ," Kim said, sharing a look with Ron. "We do fine on our own… And you have all of Go City to protect!"

"But _family_ -.."

"She doesn't want to join us/you, Hego!" the other Go siblings shouted at once.

Hego flopped back in his chair. "Fine," he pouted. "I get the message."

 _Finally_ …

"...but that doesn't mean that Shego shouldn't rejoin!"

"Hego…!" Shego was close to either pulling her hair out or blasting him across the room. Maybe both. "I don't _want_ to be a hero!"

"Are you still going to be villains then?" Hego asked, clearly not seeing the middle ground.

"No./Maybe?" Drakken and Shego answered at once.

Shego stared at Drakken. Did he just…?

Drakken cringed under her gaze. "Well, what _else_ am I going to do?"

"Be a hero?" Hego asked hopefully.

"NO!" This time the two were united in their answer.

"Anyway…" Kim looked at her father, beginning to use her ultimate weapon. "Are you really going to go back to villainy? Even now?"

"Well, I mi-.." Drakken narrowed his eyes. "What is that? What are you doing?"

"Please don't? For me?" Kim pushed her lip out even harder, utilizing the puppy dog pout to its full power.

"I… Nnnngh…" He squirmed uncomfortably. "Stop that!"

"There is no fighting the PDP," Ron said with a sagely nod. "You might as well give in now."

"I… I…" He crossed his arms and growled, "Fine! No more villain stuff!" He muttered not under his breath, "Party pooper."

"So, what _are_ you planning to do?" Ron asked Shego.

Shego sat and thought. "I'm considering going back to college. Getting a master's, maybe a PhD." She looked at Drakken. "I want to get my life back on track, Doc. I think you should try, too."

Drakken rolled his eyes. "You _do_ realize that just over a month ago you were haranguing me about that very same thing? Going back to school?" he said, continuing to pout.

"And that was… Wrong… Of me." It felt like she was choking on the words.

Her husband just kind of… Looked at her. "What?"

"I'm _not_ repeating myself."

"I never thought I'd see the day…" Mego said, joining Drakken in the staring.

Shego growled, "Okay, yeah, I said it. Let's move on!"

"So then…" Hego looked at the crowd in front of him, discomfort on his face. "I suppose you'll want to be going…"

Shego paused, then shrugged. If that's all he was up for instead of _actually talking_ about things…

"Yeah, I gue-.."

The viewscreen burst to life.

"Team Go!"

The face of the mayor - somehow looking the same as always - popped up on the screen. "We need your help!"

"Team Go is at your service!" Hego said, standing heroically. "What is the problem, mayor?"

"Aviarius is assaulting the aerodynamics auditorium on Albany Avenue!" the mayor announced, absolutely astonished.

"Don't worry, mayor. We'll handle it!" Hego said, flexing his muscles.

"We can help too!" Ron said brightly. Kim nodded in agreement.

"What do you say, sis? For old time's sake?" her eldest brother asked with his golden boy smile.

"...ugh." She hated it, but if her princess was going to go toss her hat in the ring… "Yeah, sure. Doc and I'll tag along."

"Wait… Why am _I_ tagging along? I'm not a fighter!" Drakken complained.

"You certainly handled yourself pretty well against Gemini," his wife countered.

"I'm still injured!" He waved at his bandaged leg.

Shego rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. It's just some birdbrain villain. You'll be fine."

"I… I just… Nnnnngh…"

"C'mon… We can consider it family bonding time!" Ron said, getting up and patting Drakken on the back.

" _You_ certainly aren't my family!" Drakken snorted.

"Don't worry, Dad," Kim said with a smile. "We'll have your back."

Shego looked at Hego and wondered… Why did he wince?

* * *

"Fools!" Aviarius cried out from where he was hovering in a large, hawkish-looking flying machine. Rockets were strapped to the bottoms, as were a few laser guns. He was directing what looked like little penguins to the aeronautics museum, having them steal all of the items inside. He yelled at the fleeing civilians, "Run away! Run like the little ants you are!"

"Aviarius!" Hego jumped from the Go jet which Shego had graciously decided to pilot for them and struck a heroic pose. "Stop your nefarious scheme now!"

"Oh look! If it isn't the cheer squad," Aviarius sneered at him. "You can't stop me!"

"Wanna bet?" Mego also posed, as did the Wegos and Ron.

"Ron, what are you doing?" Kim asked, walking up to him from where she'd parked the Sloth.

"Posing in a group! It's fun," he claimed. "You should try it!"

Kim shrugged and joined him, posing like she had when she confronted Drakken and Shego in her new outfit for the first time. "...you know what? It is kinda fun."

" _Please_ , Bubble-butt," Shego said, walking up to the group. "Don't reduce yourself to their antics. You're better than that."

"No kidding!" Drakken agreed, coming up behind her.

"HA! Precisely where I want you!" Aviarius tossed something at the group. It flopped out in front of Hego's feet. It looked like a duck-billed platypus.

"That's not a bird…" Kim pointed out.

"Of course it is!" Aviarius sniffed. "It has a bill and lays eggs!"

"Yeah, _pretty_ sure it's a mammal," Shego said.

"Shut up!" Aviarius scowled and grunted, "You can't stop me from my goal!"

"What's the _point_ of this?" Ron asked, scratching his head as he went over to poke the platypus. "Like, are you just gonna decorate your lair or something like that?"

"I, ah…" Aviarius raised a finger, then dropped it. He then shook his head and said, "You won't distract me!" He pushed a button on his console.

Suddenly, the platypus shuddered and burst open. Almost like liquid, metal swirled around the group and formed into oddly-shaped, tightly spaced bars. Kim tried to flip out of the way, but ended up tangling herself up with her purple uncle.

" _Now_ who's being put in a cage?!" he cackled. "Those bars are made from Lorwardian metals! Good luck bending _those_!" With that, he resumed his task of emptying the museum of its memorabilia.

"Great…" Kim shook her head as she stood up, helping Mego to his feet. "How did this happen?"

"Because certain people couldn't help but be stupid," Shego said, glaring at Hego.

"Calm down, everyone…" Hego used his glow and punched at the metal bars. It barely dented. "Curses!"

"Let me give it a shot…" Shego's flames burst to life as she worked her powers on the bars. They melted slightly, but with no weak joints to take advantage of it would take a long, long while to work.

"Here, let _me_ try." Drakken's vines crawled out of his coat and wrapped around the bars. Slowly, they began to bend.

"Booyah!" Ron shouted. "Doctor Drakken's got our back!"

"Hmph!" The blue man gave Ron the evil eye. "If it were just you in here, I wouldn't even bother!"

"Mego!" The Wegos turned to him. "You can get through, right?"

"Probably…" Mego shrank down and skipped through one of the floor-level holes. Growing back to his normal size, he smirked. "There! I'm out."

"Go distract Aviarius while we work out a way to get out of here," Hego instructed.

"Oh boy." Shego facepalmed. " _This_ oughta be amusing…"

"Hey now!" the purple man cried. "I can totally handle Aviarius. He's easy-peasy."

"Then get to it! Chop chop!" Ron said, clapping his hands.

"Fine, fine…" Mego ran off to confront the bird-themed villain.

"So then…" Shego decided that since they clearly had the time - her husband could only work so fast on the bars - she decided to poke the bear a bit. "So, Princess, what do you think about your newfound family?"

"Huh?" Kim looked at Shego, confused. "I, ah, guess everyone's pretty cool. Like, I mean…" Kim scratched her head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how do you feel about your dear ol' mom and dad? And your uncles?" Hego winced again, clearly trying to hide it and failing. _There_ we go.

"I mean, it's all so new…"

"What's wrong, Hego?" Shego interrupted, staring at her brother.

He looked around, fake innocence dripping off of him. "What do you mean?"

"What do I-.." The green woman glared at him. "You know _exactly_ what I mean."

Hego frowned. "I don't know what you-.."

"Do you have a problem with my Kimmie?" Shego watched him closely

"I… I…" He looked around as if trapped beyond the bars, then cried, "I should have _been there_!" His face suddenly twisted. "You should have felt like you could depend on me. But you couldn't!" A blue glow surrounded his fist as he swung it, denting part of the cage a lot more than his previous attempt. "And I can't blame you! You're _exactly_ right!

"You didn't tell me, at all, what was going on with you! You _had a baby_ without telling me! You _GOT MARRIED_ without telling me! Because you felt like you couldn't!"

"Hego…?" Kim made a calming motion with her hands. "It's fine. Everything turned out-.."

"It did NOT turn out fine!" Hego waved as if presenting Drakken as exhibit A. "Look at my brother-in-law! He's scarred, mentally and physically! I could've prevented that! If I'd just…"

He flopped to the ground. "If my sister could've trusted me to listen to her, to not lose my cool…"

Shego rolled her eyes. "There you go, self-aggrandizing again!"

Hego glared. "What are you talking about? It's true!"

"It isn't true and you know it!" she growled. "What could you have done, huh? What could you have done?!"

"I could've provided you with safe birth control," he pointed out.

"And that would've left us with no Kimmie. Try again!"

"If I'd known about your relationship…"

"Wrong answer." She shook her head. "You and I _both_ know that I was making a bad decision. We're lucky it turned out the way it did! That Doctor D is, well, Doctor D."

"Gee, thanks." Drakken crossed his arms even as his vines worked to unbend the interlaced bars.

"No problem, Doc."

"Nnnnngh…"

"Anyway… Try again."

"If you'd told me about the baby, we could've helped take care of her! Your husband wouldn't've had to take that job with GJ."

"That may have a point… But that's still linked to our relationship. You would've still been right about me being too young." Shego sighed. She decided not to point out that she also didn't want to return or have him involved in their lives because of the hero-pushing. No point in making him feel worse than he already did, and she didn't have anything to counter it. "Hego, you aren't to blame for any of what happened to us. That's on me. And it isn't about me not trusting you, either. I trusted you to do what would've been the best thing with me. It just ended up being exactly what I didn't want."

"But…" his face crumpled.

"There's _nothing_ you could have done. You would've been right to stop our relationship. And I was too stubborn to let you get involved to do that. Again, that's on me."

Hego said nothing.

"Are you all done with your family bonding exercise?" Drakken asked, a hand on his hip and the other one flourishing at the bars. "Because I'm just about finished."

Sure enough, the bars were bent open to the air, large enough for the smaller people to fit through.

"A-Booyah!" Ron held up a hand to clap with Drakken.

Drakken ignored him and kept working even as Shego, Kim, and the Wegos slipped out.

"Aww man, again?"

"YES again!" the blue man said with a sneer. "I still don't approve of you dating my daughter."

Then, suddenly, Mego was thrown into the bars on the opposite side of the opening.

"FOOL! Did you think you could keep me down?!" Aviarius shouted, his missiles exhausted and one of his laser cannons disabled. Pushing a button, his remaining laser cannons fired. "I am AVIARIUS!"

"And we're Team Possible!" Ron said jumped on top of the cage. Kim joined him, pulling out her compact and using it to deflect one of the lasers. Ron dodged the other one, then, glowing blue, tossed Kim into the air. She performed a perfect flip, landing cleanly into the bird-themed villain's aircraft.

"Time to put you back in your cage," Kim quipped, pulling back her arm for a punch.

"I _hate_ that one line-.." Aviarius was cut off by Kim's fist, which knocked him clean out of the aircraft.

"I got him!" Ron shouted, waving his arms about frantically.

The Wegos multiplied, boosting themselves up to catch the villain. They easily cushioned his fall and brought him back to the ground.

"Okay, I don't got him."

Shego, for her part, was cleaning up the penguin robots. It was easy enough; a swift blast of plasma and they were toast. After a minute, in which her princess and her blond dork joined in the penguin slaughter, the job was finished.

"Great job!" Kim exclaimed with a smile.

"Yeah! Go team!" Ron said, high-fiving the Wegos.

"Hey! Don't _I_ get any credit here?" Mego grumbled as he was helped to his feet by Shego.

"Yeah, I guess you didn't completely suck," Shego said with a smirk.

"Gee, thanks sis." Mego dusted himself off and looked into the cage. "Hey, Hego, what're you doing still in there?"

"I'm contemplating my navel," Hego replied.

"...why are you thinking about your belly?" the purple man asked.

"He means he's thinking about stuff, you idiot," Drakken said, rejoining the others.

"Now that was uncalled for…" one Wego said.

"Yeah. Considering it's Hego, he might've actually been thinking about his belly!" the other chimed in.

"Okay, guys, you might wanna clear out," Shego said, looking at her blue brother with well-hidden concern. "The police and such're gonna want to clean this stuff up."

"And what about Aviarius?" a Wego asked, poking the knocked-out villain in the side with his foot.

"Leave him. They'll be here before he'll wake up." Shego made like she was checking a watch. "Oh, look at the time. Hego and I have an appointment to keep. We'll take the Go jet."

"Gotcha." Ron nodded, then cried as he ran to the Sloth, "I call shotgun!"

"Appointment?" Kim looked at her mother with curiosity.

"Trust me on this, Princess," Shego said with a shrug. Then she said, whispering, "We need some sibling alone time…"

A spark flitted through her eyes. "Gotcha…" She turned to the twins and said, "You two can ride with me."

"And I _suppose_ you can ride with me." Drakken begrudgingly looked at Mego.

"Perfect! Just what I wanted to do," Mego grumbled. "Tag along with my _favorite_ brother-in-law."

"I'm your _only_ brother-in-law," Drakken noted flatly.

"Duh!"

Shego waved everyone else off. Once they were gone, Shego went back into the cage where Hego hadn't moved from.

"C'mon. Let's go."

It was easy enough to lead him to the Go jet. She just had to drag him with her and toss him in.

Once safely ensconced in the Go jet, Shego turned to her brother.

"Okay. Spill. This isn't just about me not depending on you." Shego gave him the evil eye. "So, what's going on in that pea brain of yours?"

Hego squirmed but said nothing.

"Tell me!" A hand was encased in plasma. "Or you'll have a visit to Ouch Town."

He cringed, then said, "I just… I can't believe you didn't trust me!"

"Trust you?" She tilted an eyebrow. "Didn't I already say it wasn't because I didn't trust you? And that NONE of it was your fault?"

"Then _why wouldn't you tell me_!?"

"Maybe I also wanted to avoid the drama!" Shego glared at him. "Maybe I didn't want this to become 'a thing', hm? Maybe, just maybe, I was hoping that things would settle down enough that it _wouldn't_ be 'a thing', or, at least, it'd be _less_ of a thing. I mean, look at you!" She growled, "I can't believe how much this bothers you!"

"It bothers me about what happened-.."

"Then let's pretend that didn't happen."

"What?" Hego boggled.

"Let's pretend that whole _thing_ with Gemini never happened. How do you feel then, huh?"

Hego said, "But it _did_ happen! And _I wasn't there for you_."

"Do you have to be there for _everyone_?" Shego asked, exasperated.

" _YES_! I do!" Hego shouted. "Ever since Mom and Dad died, I've been responsible for you all! I've tried, so hard, to make sure that everyone was safe and happy! And to find out that I messed up, that I drove my sister to hide important life milestones like you did? It's _wrong_!"

Shego watched her older brother. "...Hego, you might want to look into therapy."

"Therapy-.. Heroes don't need therapy!" he proclaimed.

"Yes they do," Shego said flatly. "Heck, my princess went to one when she was still processing that whole _thing_. And, hellooo, who's planning on being a child psychologist, eh? What do you mean about 'heroes don't need therapy'? Bah…"

"But-.. I just-.." Hego sputtered.

"Don't be too proud to help yourself," Shego said seriously. "Okay?"

He sat, a cross look on his face. "...I'll think about it."

"That's all I'll ask for… For now." She strapped her flight helmet on. "Next stop: Go tower…"

* * *

"That was super fun!" Kim said, windows rolled down on the Sloth for discussion.

"Yeah, it was," the Wegos agreed, both crowding the window.

"I still can't get over how old you two are!" Ron sat, still gobsmacked from an apparent conversation they all had while Shego and Hego were having their own little talk. "You're, like, older than _us_!"

"What's so weird about that?" the Wegos said, eyeing the blond with distaste.

"You're so…" Ron tried to think of the right words.

"Short. You're short," Drakken supplied from where he was standing behind the twins.

"Hey! Just because we're short-.."

"..-doesn't mean that we're super young!" they said peevishly.

"Okay, okay!" Ron raised his arms in surrender. "I get it! You're old-timers!"

"Damn straight!"

"Ohhh, gratuitous swearing! Better watch out, Buffoon!" Shego said with a smirk as they walked up to the group.

"Wegos! I can't believe that language!" Hego said, shaking a finger at the two.

Chagrined, they replied, "Sorry Hego…"

"Well, _I_ think they're old enough to do and say what they want!" Mego noted from next to the Wegos.

"Thanks Meegs," the two said, smirking at their eldest brother.

"Whatever." Shego shrugged. "Anyway…" She shoved her brothers aside and gave Kim a big hug. "Don't be a stranger, okay? You know where we are…"

" _Most_ of the time," Drakken corrected.

"Y'know, I never got why you have so much real estate," Ron observed.

"It's cheap and holds value for the most part," Kim's dad explained. "Also, I keep hoping that it will keep _pesky teenagers AND Squirrel Scouts_ out of our lives!"

"'Pesky teenagers'?" Kim quoted with a tilted eyebrow.

"You don't qualify as that anymore!" Drakken shoved his way over to the driver's side window and gave Kim a tentative hug. "Just, erm, don't come through the air ducts anymore please."

"Don't worry." Kim gave a wide, genuine smile. "I know where the front door is now."

"Well…" It was a little awkward, but not too bad considering the drama llamas that Hego had been parading around earlier. Hego gave Shego a meaningful look, then shook it off as he turned towards his niece. "It was nice meeting you in the family sense…"

"You too." Kim looked at her clock and cringed. "Gotta jet. The 'rents wanted to take us out shopping for groceries for this next week…"

"See ya around, Kimmie." Shego stepped back, dragging her husband with as the teen activated the hover capacity on her car and took off.

"I suppose we should go too." Drakken pointed at his wrist where there was no watch and said, "It's getting late."

"You could always stay the night?" Hego offered.

"HAHAHAHA-.. Yeah, no," Shego said, struggling not to fall into condescending laughter at the very _idea_ of staying in her old room with Drakken. "We're leaving."

"You two… Don't be a stranger either," Hego parroted Shego's earlier request. "We do miss you, Shego."

"...yeah, I know." Shego dragged Drakken off to their hovercar and hopped in. Looking at her husband, she asked, "You ready?"

Drakken snorted. "I was ready before we even faced off with that bird guy."

The four Go siblings waved them off as they flew off.

"...so, what did you and Shego talk about?" Mego asked, falling behind with Hego as the Wegos skipped up the rocks towards the Go tower.

"...stuff." Hego shrugged. "Just stuff."


	2. Drakken

Shego woke up from her deep slumber and looked around her and Drakken's bedroom. She sighed as she noted that her doc wasn't in bed with her. She noticed that, like the last few nights, his side of the bed was unslept in. Probably pulled another all-nighter. He'd been doing that a lot lately, planning and making various little machines that he could patent and make money off of.

She got out of his large, round bed and stretched. Idly, she wondered if he would have breakfast ready. He hadn't been doing that, deciding instead to work on whatever he was working on in his lab.

She hadn't bothered to really check on him in his lab, opting to look into programs that she could take to earn her master's degree. But now… She was starting to get curious. Considering he made an army of killer robots in one day, it now struck her as odd that he was only making small, almost inconsequential machines that would take him hours, at most.

What was he spending all of his time on?

Shego decided to put off looking into the programs at Upperton College, where Kimmie was going, to see what he was up to.

She walked into the lab to find a scene right out of her worst nightmare.

Drakken was standing, admiring a large, monstrous machine. It looked like a combination of the ray from when he was rich and the doomsday machine he had made in space, with ridged rings circling the main cannon and a large, shiny panel attached to its belly.

He turned, a bright smile on his face.

"Shego! Perfect timing!" Drakken skipped over to the console and rubbed a hand over it. "I've _just_ finished this baby!"

"Is that… A death ray?!" Shego growled, stomping over to him. "You promised you wouldn't do another take-over-the-world scheme-.."

"I promised nothing," he said simply. "I just said I wouldn't!"

"I can't _believe_ you, just…" Shego pulled at her hair. "We have the _golden opportunity_ to start over with _our daughter_ and you're throwing it away, just like that?"

Drakken said, offended. "I'm not throwing it away! I'm just-.."

The lab door opened.

Kim and Ron wandered in, heedless of the scene. She almost offhandedly said, "Drakken, Shego, Wade said there were power fluctuations consistent with a death ray, but I think… That..." Kim stopped as she looked up and took in the scene in front of her. "What… The…"

"Oh boy," Rufus remarked from Ron's pocket.

"Don't look at me, Cupcake!" Shego waved her hands in front of her. "I'm not involved in this at all!"

"Drakken, did you do this all by yourself?" Kim asked, gobsmacked.

"Well, yes!" Drakken looked at them like their reactions were surprising to him. "I figured that I could do the grunt work of making the machine, and you all could fend off whatever agents came to stop us!"

"Drakken…" Shego clenched her teeth. "We. Are. Not. Villains."

"Since when?" Drakken challenged. His hand hovered over what Shego assumed was the 'on' button.

"It's either _us_ or _that_ ," Shego said, crossing her arms with a tilted eyebrow. She hoped that he would listen, that he wouldn't toss away their lives like that. They meant more to him than the world, didn't they?

"Are you really going to make me choose!?" He seemed completely confused. "But…" He looked between his family and his death ray, brow knitting together. Twiddling his fingers, Drakken asked, "But we could do it! Together!"

"We don't _want_ the world!" Shego said, cross. "We want _you_."

Drakken paused, finger withdrawing from the button slowly. "I… Can't we have both?"

"No, we can't."

His finger paused.

Then, he pushed the button.

"You'll understand! You'll understand once I manage to take it all over!" Drakken cried as his machine powered up.

"You IDIOT!" Shego yelled as she activated her powers and let loose on the doomsday machine before it could get to work.

It exploded in a ball of green flame.

Drakken skittered away from the destroyed machine, face twisting.

"I don't get it!" Drakken sat, crying, face dropping into his hands. "If we ruled the world, we could all be happy! I just… _I_ _don't understand_!"

"I'm just gonna… Stand over here…" Ron said, taking a few steps back from the group as Kim and Shego made their way to the scientist.

Shego stooped down to Drakken's level. "Doc… _Drew_ …"

"Don't call me that! Don't call me…!" Drakken looked up, angry even through the tears. "I'm Drakken! Doctor Drakken!" He smashed a fist into the ground. "Drew is _gone_!"

"...no he isn't."

Drakken glared at Kim. "What do you mean 'no he isn't'? Isn't it clear that I'm not him?"

"You love your mother. You love _Shego_. You, Drew, Drakken…" Kim went and sat next to the weeping man. "You care about your daughter, right?" He couldn't look at her, but nodded. "Then Drew isn't gone… He's just…" the redhead thought for a moment "...trapped."

"Trapped?" Drakken echoed, lifting his head and wiping at his eyes.

"Yeah…" Kim gave him a sidehug. "You just need some help."

"Help?" He snorted. "Like some psycho-whatever person messing with my head?"

"Hey now…" Shego growled. "Child. Psychologist." She raised her hands over her head. "God, will anyone actually _remember_ that about me?"

Drakken cringed. "Sorry Shego…"

"Anyway…" Kim switched to giving him a full-on hug. "Dad… You were hurt. You were hurt _really bad_. And no one helped you…"

"I'm sorry." Shego looked away. "I never really thought about… Well…" She waved at him. "I never really thought about how it all affected you."

"I told you I don't remember any of it!" he snapped. "And it's not like this skin is all for show! It itches _all the time_!"

"And who knows what effect it had on your mind," Kim murmured sadly. "...don't worry, Dad. We'll get you the help you need."

He might not be Drew anymore, not fully… But he was still her father, and she was still his daughter. Shego was still his wife, and he still cared about everyone. It was just a matter of helping him heal.

Baby steps.

* * *

"So, Kimberly…" Dr Director motioned for Kim to sit in the large, comfortable-looking chair in her rather large office. Bookshelves lined the walls, full of books and knick-knacks, with a few pictures scattered about. Her desk was also spacious, if barren. The only things on it was a picture, of whom Kim couldn't see, a desk pad, a pen mount, and a letter opener. "How can we help you today?"

"I'm here about Dr Drakken…" Dr Director didn't move or do anything beyond a minor eyebrow lift.

"What about Dr Drakken has you concerned? As far as our intelligence knows, he's free and clear of all of his crimes."

So she _hadn't_ heard anything about them, or his slip-up earlier… Interesting.

"I wanted to see… About getting him help."

"Help… Dr Drakken?" The very idea seemed to confuse the head of GJ. "I don't understand."

"Help fix him," Kim said, watching Dr Director closely now. The doctor's lips twitched downwards, just a little, and just for a split second.

"Kimberly, surely you understand that we can't spend our resources helping any and every criminal that does that sort of thing to themsel-.."

"I know about Project Phoenix," Kim suddenly said. "I know about what _actually_ happened to him."

 _That_ got Dr Director's eyes to pop. Then, cursing under her breath, she muttered, "Wade Load…"

"Don't blame Wade," the redhead said, crossing her arms. "I would've found out somehow."

Dr Director sighed. "So, you know about how he turned blue?" Kim nodded. The one-eyed woman leaned forward. "As unfortunate as his situation is, we can't be held liable for his condition. It's a risk everyone takes when they sign up with Global Justice."

"Was he made aware of these risks?" she asked.

This time Dr Director's lips twitched up just a little. "I'm not sure. We can't keep track of what every operative does and says when they recruit personnel."

Really? She was going the plausible deniability route? Even when she knew exactly how it went down?

...should Kim let them know about Shego? About Kim? About… Everything?

...no. That was personal. That wasn't for _them_ to know for their poorly-organized records and plausible deniability claims. It wasn't something they needed to know.

Kim shook her head to clear her thoughts. Then, slowly, she said, "Consider doing this as a favor for me."

Another upward turn of the lips, just a little. "Kimberly, while you have been instrumental in the fight against villains, you are owed _no_ favors from us."

Time to tip the hand a bit…

"What about destroying Gemini's organization?"

Dr Director paused. Lips turning down slightly, she said, " _Dr Drakken and Shego_ destroyed his base."

"They did it for me," Kim noted, hoping the other woman wouldn't read as much into it as she could.

"Did it for…?" The one-eyed woman shook her head. "You are making _no sense_."

"You've been working for _years_ to take your brother down," Kim said, deciding to ignore actually explaining. "Doesn't the fact that you don't have to worry about him anymore count for something?"

"That would only matter if Dr Drakken wanted to change."

"He does." The redhead nodded. "He wants to be normal again." Kim rushed, hoping to cover for his sudden change of mood, "For Shego."

Dr Director made no effort to hide the narrowing of her eyes. "Kimberly, what is going on?"

"I'm not sure," Kim said smugly. "'cause anyone could've been there for what happened between them. Maybe Drakken's just tired of being itchy?"

The other woman was silent for a few moments. "...I will contact Dr Drakken and Shego. If it's true, then we may be able to help him… Just a little."

Kim smiled brightly. "Spankin'!"

* * *

"Are you ready?"

Drakken looked at Shego as they shut the doors on the hovercar. In his arms were a couple of bags filled with various articles of clothing and some personal care supplies. They had taken care of everything that they needed to for while he was… Indisposed. Things had been worked out. So why in the world was she asking that?

"Of course I'm ready," he said irritably. "You were there! Everything is done."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, not what I meant. I asked if _you_ were ready."

He pondered that for a moment. His gaze traveled to the building that held the hospital wing he was going to be staying in. Some kind of inpatient thing. He probably should've paid more attention to when Kimberly and Shego negotiated with Dr Director on where he could go.

About a minute later, he said with some trepidation, "Yes, I think I am…" Looking back at her, he nervously asked, "Will you… Erm…" He looked away, twiddling his fingers. Drakken didn't really have the right to ask, but…

She seemed to read his mind. "Don't worry, Doctor D. I left you sitting in jail waiting for several months. I can handle some waiting on my own." Shrugging, she said with a smirk, "I'll spend the time looking at more colleges, maybe register for the next semester... You won't have to worry about me running off."

Drakken nodded. That made sense. She wouldn't be wasting her time waiting. She would be setting up her life for afterwards, when he was better. That was good. Very good…

They walked silently into the strangely nondescript building. It was clean and bright inside, with a small marble-topped desk sitting prominently in the middle of the room. Benches lined the perimeter, corkboards hanging above them with various fliers promoting different support groups that operated in the area.

They stopped in front of the desk where a rather calm-looking plump woman sat doing some paperwork. Or, at least, she had been. Once they'd entered she had set things down to give them her undivided attention.

"How may I help you?" the receptionist asked brightly.

"I called ahead," Shego answered, pushing Drakken forward a little. "Drew Lipsky."

"Ah yes." The woman nodded as she pushed a button. Smiling, she looked at Drakken and said, "Don't worry. We'll get you set up in a room first, then we'll get you to an appointment with one of our specialists."

It seemed a little streamlined to Drakken. He was pretty sure that Shego must have done the paperwork necessary. A little speck of petulance sprouted in his chest; why couldn't he have filled out the paperwork? He sent a small glare at Shego, who narrowed her eyes and glared right back. It only took a few seconds before he gave in, turning away and snorting. As if he could stop her from doing what she wanted, even if it was something _he_ should be doing.

It wasn't even a minute later that a dark-haired man in a set of scrubs came walking in. An easy smile sat on his face as he asked, "Drew Lipsky?"

Drakken fought not to snarl at that. Hearing his birth name come from some random person's mouth was _far_ different than hearing it come from Shego. He answered testily, "Yes, that's me."

The smile didn't waver in the slightest. "Hello! I'm Nurse Focker. Come with me. We'll get you settled first, then we'll get started on the full intake process."

He hesitated a moment, looking back at Shego. She gave him a small exasperated smile before she motioned for him to go with the nurse.

Drakken did what she wanted. He went with the man, even with his stomach in his throat.

This wasn't a cage. They weren't trying to lock him up like prison. They were trying to help him.

Drakken swallowed as he kept walking. A small amount of conviction coursed through him as he decided that they really _were_ trying to help him. This was the first step to being getting better. He really was sick, Shego and Kimberly had told him that. And sick people needed to be taken care of, needed treatment.

Shego didn't lie to him. Not about things like this. And he was sure after that Halloween fiasco that Kimberly _couldn't_ lie.

They came to a stop in front of a metal door with a window. To Drakken's unease, the glass was reinforced and there was a heavy-duty lock on the door. He was tempted to turn and run the other way. If he tried that, though, he knew Shego would just knock him out and shove him in here anyway.

"This is your room," the nurse said, opening the door wide to let Drakken in. The scientist looked around the strangely full room. There was a bed, a small nightstand, and a decently-sized dresser. A television sat behind reinforced plastic in the wall and an exercise bike sat in the corner. It didn't take long for him to notice that they were all curves and made of heavy-duty plastic. "I'll let you put your things away and then we can get you to the psychologist so you can get on the path to being healthy again."

Healthy. That was the entire reason he was here. He was supposed to be getting healthy. Not for himself. He'd managed things so far, what was another 40 years of annoyances? It was for Shego. For Kimberly. For the future. A future that just a few weeks before would have seemed like some kind of weird mushroom samba.

Drakken took in a deep breath. It'd be fine. In fact, things would be great! It would all be bright and shiny and good! Nodding from his prep talk, he took a step into the room, his first step to getting better.


	3. The Possibles

"...so that's what happened." Kim sighed, having finally, after waiting a couple of weeks, reluctantly explaining everything, looking at the floor in their living room, afraid of how her parents would react. What would they think, knowing everything that happened? What was _still_ happening? The fallout from the sitch coming to light? "That's how Drakken and Shego are my biological parents."

"Kimmie…" Her parents, who were sitting on either side of her on the couch, hugged her. Anne continued, "This doesn't change a thing."

"Really?" Kim looked up, surprised.

"Yes, honey." Anne gave Kim another hug. "We don't care about what happened. All that matters is that you're our daughter, and that we love you."

"Yes," James agreed. "You're still our little Kimmie-cub."

"Good." She hugged both of them back. "I'm glad that it doesn't matter to you."

"It matters to _us_."

Kim and her parents looked up, surprised. In front of them, Jim was staring at them, arms crossed, while Tim was trying to pull him away.

"Don't listen to him. He's just _being stupid_ ," Tim said, trying to drag his twin along with him.

"No!" Jim wrestled his arm free and repeated, "It matters to _me_ , then."

"Jim…?" Kim watched him, her face falling. He looked so… Upset.

"What's wrong, Sport?" James said, trying to keep a calm facade.

"How could you keep this from us?" Jim said, looking at their parents. "How could you pretend that she's our sister?"

"Because she is?" Anne said, confusion on her face.

"Don't do this," Tim warned, apparently pleading with his twin.

Jim ignored him.

"She is not!" He marched up to the three of them. "She is _not_ our sister."

"Jim!" James admonished, "Just because she has different parents doesn't mean that she isn't your sister. Nothing has changed."

" _Everything_ has changed!" Jim cried. "She isn't even _related_ to us!"

"She's still a Possible," Anne said firmly. "That's like saying _I'm_ not a Possible."

"You're at least our mom!" The twin pointed at Kim accusingly. "She isn't even that much! She's some kid of _supervillains_! She's gonna leave us for them, I _know_ it!"

"Jim…" James said warningly. "That is no way to treat your sis-.."

"SHE ISN'T MY SISTER!" The yell could probably have been heard from outside.

Kim was too shocked to do much more than stare at her brother. Her heart was tearing itself apart at what he was saying. Did he really feel like this? Was this how he really felt? Thinking she was some kind of... Of intruder?

"JIM!" James shouted, cool finally broken. Standing, he pointed to the stairs and said, "Go to your room! We'll talk about this more _later."_

Kim's younger brother paused, frowning, before petulantly turning around and stomping his way up the stairs.

"I'm sorry," Tim said as a door above slammed, rubbing his arm. "We spied on you guys. I don't get what his problem is…"

"Neither do I." James gave a heavy sigh, going over and grabbing his pipe. "I can't believe…"

"Kimmie, I-.." Anne paused, concerned, as she noticed that Kim was now crying. "Oh, Bubble-butt…" She gave her daughter a big hug, pulling her head to her shoulder. "It's okay. Let it all out."

"I can't believe-.." Kim's voice cracked. "Jim…"

Tim walked over and joined the hug. "It's okay. He'll stop being dumb eventually. I think he's just really confused." He shrugged even in the hug. " _I'm_ pretty confused, but I think it's more cool that you're related to supervillains than anything!"

Kim let out a dry, humorless chuckle, even through the tears.

James brushed her hair with his hand. "Shhhh… It'll be fine, Kimmie-cub. Things are fine…"

"No they aren't," she mumbled into her mother's shoulder, trying to stop the tears from flowing. "Jim _hates_ me…"

"He doesn't hate you," Anne reassured her. "He's just being a tween."

"Hey!" Tim stepped back, putting his hands on his hips. " _I'm_ a tween!"

"You also seem to be mature for your age," James noted with a chuckle.

"Hmph." Tim puffed out his cheeks, but said nothing.

A few minutes of sobbing and reassurances later, Kim finally had her crying under control.

"I just…" Kim shook her head. "I'm just shocked, I guess."

"So are we," James agreed, puffing out a bit of smoke. "I thought we'd raised him better than that..."

"You did," Tim and Kim both assured him at the same time. They looked at each other and let out a simultaneous laugh. It lasted longer than it should have, and ended slightly forced.

"Anyway…" Anne sighed. "I suppose we'll have to deal with this sooner rather than later."

James nodded. "Yes." He paused, though, thinking. Then, turning to Kim, he said, "You might not want to be here for this, Kimmie-cub."

"It's no big," Kim said with an attempt at Shego's careless shrug. She managed to pull it off, just a little. "I can go hang out with Ron."

"Just as long as you don't get up to any funny business," James said, eyeing his oldest.

"Dad!" Kim flushed red. "We aren't doing _that_."

"Not yet," Anne added with a smirk.

" _Mom_ …!"

"That's a little too much, honey," James said with a wince.

All Anne did was laugh.

"Ugh!" Kim growled as she got up from the couch. She began walking over to the stairs, saying, "I'm gonna go pack some things. Be back in a jiffy!"

"Okay, Kimmie-cub," James said with a nod, apparently finishing his bout of smoking as he knocked out the tobacco onto his ashtray with his pipe tool and stamped out the ashes.

Kim bounced up the stairs, then paused at the tweebs' door. She wondered, hoped…

She opened the door.

Jim was sitting on his bed, staring off into space. As soon as Kim popped her head in, his forehead sloped and his mouth drooped down into a scowl.

"What do you want?" he asked with a light snarl in his tone.

"I just wanted to check on you," Kim said, again trying to channel her mother's careless shrug. This time, she succeeded.

"I don't _need_ you to check on me," Jim pouted.

"I know you didn't need me to. I _wanted_ to." She smiled. "I'm just concerned about you..."

"Why don't you go back to your _real_ family?" Jim muttered, turning away from her to look at the wall.

Kim had nothing to say to that. What _could_ she say? It was pretty clear how he felt.

She reluctantly began to close the door. Stopping, she said sadly, "Just, if you need me, you know how to reach me."

"Don't worry. I won't."

Kim flinched. Then, slowly, she shut the door.

* * *

"Man, KP…" Ron looked up from his desk where he'd been working on something since before she'd arrived to look at her, face grim. "That's awful!"

"Yeah…" Kim snuggled her repaired, singed Pandaroo plushie and sighed, flopping back onto Ron's bed. "I wish I knew what was wrong with him…"

"Maybe he's scared?"

She looked up at her BFBF. "Scared? Of what?"

"I dunno…" Ron shrugged. "I mean, this _is_ a pretty crazy sitch. I'd be scared too!" He paused. "Of what, I don't know. But I would be!"

"Yeah, it is pretty crazy…" Kim looked over at Ron, wondering. "What in the world are you working on?"

"Noooothing…?"

"Ron?" Curious now, she got up to go look.

"No peeking!" Ron suddenly hunched over what he was doing. Kim couldn't tell if he was writing or drawing.

"Oooookay…?" Kim decided to busy herself with unpacking some of her items. She'd be sleeping on the futon that Ron's parents had graciously bought for Ron's room after Hana moved in.

She was in the middle of debating which shirt to wear to bed versus wear tomorrow when Ron suddenly yelled, "Done!"

"With what?" Kim turned towards him.

He proudly stood from the desk, brandishing a sheet of paper. "This little baby!" Ron bounced over and excitedly handed it to her.

She took a quick look at it and smiled. "Is this…" She looked up at him, smile growing. "A love letter?" It looked like one to her, what with all of the hearts and arrows scattered about the margins. The paper wasn't very long, she could tell, but it looked like he put a lot of effort into it.

"Read it!" he exclaimed, practically shaking on the spot.

"Will d-.. Yeah." She began reading.

'Dear KP,

Yeah, I know it's a little cheesy to write a letter like this. Not as cheesy as a Naco, but cheesier than a pile of cheesy fries. I just wanted to let you know how much I care about you. I love you! Like, a lot! No matter who your parents are, no matter what happens, I'll always love you. That's what brings me to my question…'

"Question?" Kim looked up, then dropped the letter.

Ron was on his knee, brandishing a small ring.

"Yeah, I know it's not the most romance-y thing. And this ring is kinda small. But I wanted to-.."

Kim tackled him.

"Ohmygod, Ron!" She smothered him with a kiss and grabbed the ring from his hand. Letting up a minute later, she gasped as she slipped the ring on, "I will!"

"I didn't even get to ask!" he complained.

"Sorry!" Kim jumped back up, embarrassed. "I just-.." She shook her head. "What prompted this?"

"I was thinking, after everything that happened - the aliens, the parent bombshell, taking care of Hana - that I still wanted to be with you." He stood up. "And I can't think of anything else that could be worse or harder to deal with than most of that stuff. I'm pretty sure you feel the same way…"

"Mmm-hmm," Kim replied with a wide smile on her face.

"...so I wanted us to make it official. That we'll be together forever."

"Forever and ever," she agreed.

"Booyah!" He pumped a fist. "It's official then! We're totally gonna get married!"

"Shhh," Kim said, putting a finger over his lips. Leaning in, she whispered, "Less talky, more kissy." With that, she pulled her hand away and gave him a kiss he would never forget.

* * *

Kim arrived back home the next day, taking careful steps into the house. She wasn't sure how to break the news of her engagement to the 'rents. It wasn't like it would be horrible news. Just… Surprising.

"Kimmie?" she heard her mom shout from the kitchen.

"Coming!" Kim walked into the kitchen, where her parents were waiting at the table with breakfast set up. Pausing, wondering what was going on, she asked, "What's the sitch?"

The two adults looked between each other and sighed. Her dad spoke first. "Kimmie-cub, you should go talk with your brother."

"Jim?" Kim cringed at the idea of talking to him first thing that she got back. Especially with the news she had.

"Yes." Anne picked up her coffee and took a sip. "He has some important things to say to you. And, I imagine, you'll want to say some important things to him."

"...okay." Kim sighed as she turned around and went up to the tweebs' room. Cringing again, she knocked on the door.

Tim answered. "Heya sis."

"Hi…" She grabbed her arm. "Is Jim…?"

"Yeah, he is." Her brother turned around and hissed, "You better not screw this up!" before ducking under Kim's arm and rushing downstairs.

Inside, Jim was sitting on his bed, arms around his legs. He looked absolutely heartbroken.

"I'm sorry." It sounded genuine. She looked up at him, waiting, heart stopped. "I just…" Jim's eyes filled with tears. "I know that you could leave us. That you _would_ leave us. That you just…" He sniffled. "That we aren't your family anymore… And if we aren't your family, then why would you want to stick around? You aren't my sister anymore. And that means you'd leave us."

"Jim…?"

"So, I just…" Jim uncomfortably rubbed his arm. "I didn't wanna give you the chance to do it first."

"Jim…" Kim walked over to her little brother and hugged him. "You don't have to worry about that," she said, squeezing him a little too hard. "You guys are my family too." She began stroking his head. "It's not like I'll just vanish because Mom and Dad aren't my birth parents… They're just as real of my parents as Drakken and Shego are.

"I'm still your sister. I'm just not related to you, that's all. I won't leave you guys and never come back."

"You promise?"

Kim's heart melted at the tone. "Yeah, tweeb, I promise."

* * *

"So, Kimmie-cub, what did you want to talk about before the whole Jim situation when you came in?" James put down the newspaper as Kim entered the kitchen again.

"Ron and I… Uhm…" Instead of saying anything, she held up her hand.

Instead of freaking out, James nodded. "Ah! I was _wondering_ when he was going to ask you."

Kim's jaw dropped.

"Oh sweetie…" Anne picked Kim's jaw back up. "Ronald asked for permission _weeks_ ago."

"It's the only reason I'm keeping calm," her father said. "Otherwise, ohhhh boy, it'd be time for launch!"

"Dad..." Kim said flatly.

"Honey, no threatening our future son-in-law with black holes," Anne admonished.

"Sorry dear. Habit." James chuckled. "So, has Ron broke the news to his parents?"

Kim let out a chuckle of her own. "We were thinking of waiting until we sent the invitations out."

"When were you planning on having it?" her mother asked, finishing off her coffee and pouring herself another cup.

"I didn't really think about it yet," Kim admitted. "We _just_ got engaged."

She took the morning to think on it. When would they want to get married? When would be the perfect time? Their anniversary? Which anniversary? When they met? When they first kissed?

Then, like a flash, she had an idea...


	4. Shego and Kim

Shego sighed.

It was already a few weeks ago that she'd said goodbye to Doctor D. Nearly a full month without being able to annoy him, or talk with him, or _anything_. He was on practical lockdown. They even denied the fact that he was there! If it hadn't been for assurances from Dr Director that it was normal policy, she'd've stormed the place to find him.

She had spent the time looking at colleges. She'd decided to go to Upperton College, mostly so she could bug her lil' princess. It certainly helped that they had a comprehensive psychology path that accepted her bachelor's as the prerequisite.

It wasn't like she had been on the beach, soaking in the sun.

...maybe she should do that. Relax a bit, catch some rays, drink some drinks, look at the eye can-..

No. No more eye candy. It was a bad habit now, looking at other men. As much as she'd enjoyed it before, she can't do it now, not in earnest. It wasn't like she even _wanted_ to, especially since her doc had filled out with age.

It was just an old reflex.

She was looking into which resort to go to - Midas _did_ have the golden touch, though he was probably booked solid for the next few days - when her phone rang.

"What do you want?" she answered without looking at who it was.

"Shego?"

"Oh. Hi Kimmie." Shego looked at her nails. "Didn't expect to hear from you."

"What? Why? Can't I call my _favorite_ mother?"

"Kimmie!" Shego heard in the background on Cupcake's end.

"Sorry Mom!" The green woman could _hear_ the cringe. "I'm just trying to-.. Ah…"

"Butter me up?" Princess was like an open book.

"...yeah," Kim said, sounding down.

Shego chuckled. "It's fine, _Bubble-butt_." Idly looking through the website for the luxury spa in Greece, she asked, "So then, what did you want?"

"I, uhm, was hoping…"

After a moment, Shego said, "Hoping…?"

"...maybe I shouldn't do this over the phone."

"Do _what_?" she asked her daughter, exasperated.

"Is it okay if I come over?" Kim asked.

"Eh. Why not? It's not like I'm doing much of anything." Shego paused, thinking. "...actually, Kimmie, would it be okay if we met up somewhere?"

"Sure…?" Kim trailed off. "Where did you wanna meet up?"

Shego smirked at her computer. "Well…"

* * *

"The beach?" Kim gave Shego a tilted eyebrow as she took in a large air conditioned building surrounded by smaller, open-air buildings of all kinds nestled on the side of a hill. The beach was, strangely, mostly empty save for scattered couples and singles hanging around. "Is this why you told me to bring a bikini?"

"A _resort_ ," Shego corrected, looking at the white sand with a quirk in her lips. "Namely, my _favorite_ resort."

"I can't afford this!" the redhead complained.

" _Relax_. It'll be my treat. Think of it as…" Shego took a moment to think. "...mother-daughter bonding time."

"I can't stay for _too_ long," Kim pointed out. "I have classes that I need to go to."

"On _Monday_ ," Shego noted. "That'll give you a full day, day and a half to stay with me." She elbowed her daughter. "C'mon. What could it hurt?"

"I…" Kim was clearly on the fence.

"At least let me treat you to a hot stone massage."

"...okay. I'll give it a shot."

Bingo.

Smirking, Shego led Kim to a changing room. After they changed to their swimsuits - Kim in a tasteful red bikini, Shego in her favorite green open-back swimsuit - she brought the redhead to her favorite masseuse's open-air building. The green woman saw the light of recognition in the redhead's eyes and resisted chuckling.

It didn't take long to find him. He was, per normal at this time of day, relaxing in his break chair, reading a fitness magazine.

"Yo, Midas, I have a special project for you," she said, waving at Kim as they walked up to him.

He shrugged apologetically, turning a page in his magazine. "I am sorry, Shego, but I am fully booked for-.."

"Rush job payment," she replied. That oughta get him.

"...I will give a truncated massage," Midas said as he set down the magazine and stretched his arms. He got up from his seat and motioned to the massage table. "I will give up part of my break for it. _But no more_."

"Perfect." Shego turned to her daughter. " _Trust_ me, Princess, you're in for the massage of your _life_."

"It'll be the _only_ massage of my life," Kim said.

"Even better!"

Midas smirked and smugly said, "I am afraid this will spoil any and every other massage you will ever receive."

The redhead tilted an eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

"Give him a go," Shego said, shoving her towards the table.

"Okay, okay." Kim hopped onto the table and laid down.

Midas cracked his fingers as he fetched a towel from a nearby pile. As he wrapped Kim's hair up, he murmured, "Now, relax… Let your mind wander, and your spirit fly…"

"I'm not sure I can-.." Kim cut herself off as Midas's fingers got to work on her back. As he started the massage, he fetched a few rocks and settled them on her back.

"Shhh. Just enjoy the feeling of your muscles relaxing and your mind easing," he said.

Watching Kim's face droop in pleasure nearly made Shego snicker. She remembered the first time she'd gotten a massage from Midas. It really _did_ make all other massages pale in comparison.

Shego picked up Midas' magazine and began flipping through it, settling into her masseuse's seat.

She could survive the wait.

* * *

"Shego?" Kim was relaxing next to Shego on the beach laying on a lounge chair, a layer of suntan lotion on her skin.

"Yeah Kimmie?" Shego opened one eye and looked to her left. "What is it?"

"I, ah…" Kim was trying to not chicken out, but her question was suddenly overwhelmed by her curiosity. And anyway, shouldn't she ask when _both_ of her biological parents were present? "I was just wondering… Are you _sure_ you're going to give up villainy? Like…" Kim tucked a few stray hairs behind her head. "It was a big part of your life. And being a psychologist-.."

" _Child_ psychologist," Shego corrected testily.

"Yeah… That…" Kim's cheeks reddened, but she kept going. "Being a child psychologist isn't that glamorous or money-making." She waved a hand at the beach and resort behind her. "You won't be able to afford to do this anymore."

Shego was silent for a few moments, clearly thinking. Then, hesitantly, she replied, "It'll be worth it."

"Worth it?" The redhead looked at her like she was crazy. What in the world made her think it would be worth it?

"While all of this is nice, being with you is _better_." Shego shrugged. "Yeah, being known as a great villain is glamorous and all, and I gotta admit, being wanted as a commodity like that is flattering, but it doesn't compare at all to being able to spend some time with my daughter."

"Shego…" Kim's eyes watered, just a little. Knowing she meant more to the former villain than her hedonistic lifestyle was touching.

"Besides, it isn't true that I won't be able to afford this!" Shego chuckled. "I'm plenty loaded as it is, and Drakken is making enough through the patents he's got to bring in _quite_ the nest egg… Heck, the hover technology _alone_ is gonna bring in a _very_ nice sum…"

"Yeah, you'd think that some _other_ villain or hero would've cornered the market by now…" Kim said, pondering.

"Eh. They're too busy with their head-to-head fighting to think of the little guys," the green woman said with a shrug. "They don't really think about how much their tech could change the world."

"Which is pretty sad," Kim said with a frown. "I mean, curing the common cold for one thing? That would've been _amazing_ on its own."

"Yeah, and it was wasted on some bigwig scientists who didn't think about making any back-ups or anything for their machine," Shego said. "Of course, Doctor D's the same, what with all the tech he's gone through with no blueprints made. I'm not even sure he could remake the hypollinator mutagen! Hell, I'm surprised he managed to make what he did when we raided Gemini's base! Pretty sure he didn't keep any of the designs on hand..."

"Anyway…" Kim bit her lip. "It does mean a lot that you're giving up villainy for me."

Shego rolled her eyes. "It's not like I wanted to be involved in the conflict in the first place. Hego was all "Oh, we have _powers_ now, we _need_ to be heroes!"" the green woman said. Kim had to admit that it was a decent approximation of Hego's voice. "I was completely ready to give it all up the second I applied for college."

She eyed the redhead. "I don't particularly care for you participating in heroics myself…" She shrugged. "But you're old enough to take care of yourself. And…" Shego smiled. "...you've proven your fighting chops time and again." Settling down in her chair, she noted, "Just don't get yourself in over your head by tackling someone as crazy as Gemini, yeah?"

Kim chuckled.

* * *

"That actually _was_ pretty nice," Kim admitted as she settled down in Shego's room.

She'd gotten a decent amount of sun, had gotten an _amazing_ massage - someday, Kim would have to do it again - and spent some time with her mom just wandering around the complex looking at all the various attractions and amenities after they'd gotten dressed again. What could be nicer than that?

"Have you checked out the beds?" Shego asked from the bathroom. "You should check out the beds."

Kim hesitantly went over to the beds. They _looked_ pretty normal… But Shego wouldn't have said something like that unless they were something special. So Kim jumped onto the one closest to the door of the luxurious suite. Kim's eyes opened in shock. The bed was soft and squishy, yet provided the support needed to make one comfortable. And the sheets… Soft as clouds! She wasn't sure what the mattress or the sheets were made from, but whatever it was was _heaven_.

"Oooohmygod I need to come here for my honeymoon," Kim murmured to herself.

"It _is_ a pretty nice place. It'd _also_ be perfect for a destination wedding..."

The redhead nearly jumped out of her skin. When in the world had Shego gotten there?

Kim laughed nervously. "Yeah, it is. Just, it's a long way in the future and I don't-.."

Shego rolled her eyes. "Please, Kimmie, stop playing dumb."

"What do you mean?" Kim now knew how Ron felt some of the time when he was backed into a corner.

"I know about you and the buffoon planning on getting hitched."

Kim's jaw dropped. "How did you-.."

"The ring." Shego pointed at Kim's hand. "I'm surprised that no one commented on it yet. Or connected the dots. Did no one think to warn you about trying to keep an obvious secret?"

Kim flushed a bright red. She did not think that part through at all...

"You'll probably wanna take it off when we go get the doc," Shego said with a cat-like grin. "Goodness knows he doesn't need a heart attack after staying in the hospital for as long as he has."

Kim chuckled out of nerves. "Yeah…" She cleared her throat. This was a lot more nerve-wracking than she'd thought… "What do you think about it?"

"About…?" A spark of realization hit. Teasingly, Shego asked, "Oh, you and Ronnie?"

"Yes." Kim resisted puffing out her cheeks in frustration, instead blowing some stray hairs out of her face.

"Well, I think you could do better," her mom said with a shrug. "But it's your choice. If you wanna get bogged down with Monkey Boy, that's up to you."

"Like how you got dragged down by Drakken?" Kim countered.

Shego's eyes narrowed for a moment before she gave a respect-filled smirk. "Exactly!"

"I was curious…" Kim had been wondering it _way_ before the revelations of their sitch, but never had the opportunity to ask. "Why _Drakken_? Why _Drew_? What was there about them that got your attention like _that_?"

"Hm…" Shego walked around the bed and sat down at her own. "Well, I suppose it was mostly his personality…"

" _Really_?" Kim couldn't keep the incredulity out of her voice.

"Yeah, 'really'," Shego said with some hostility. "He was able to handle me at my worst. Didn't run for the hills like most sensible people would. His reactions when I push his buttons are _hilarious._ Sometimes he is actually pretty witty. And he can be surprisingly sweet sometimes, even through his ego. He's smart, smarter than I give him credit for sometimes. As for the rest of it…" she shrugged, "He was - and is - cute when you get past the initial stuff. He's kind of an ugly cute. You know, like a pug."

"Uh-huh."

"Most of him survived through what happened to him." Shego sighed. "Yeah, he's a lot more egotistical than he was. He's a bit crazier too. But he's still the same guy under it all…" Her face clouded for a moment before she shook herself loose. She flopped back on her bed and sighed, "I miss my dork…"

"He'll be back soon enough," Kim assured her.

"I just hope they're able to help him enough for that to be true…" Shego muttered.

The redhead sighed and sat up. "I'm sure of it. GJ can have its moments."

"Sometimes." The green woman frowned. "And sometimes they're like a dumpster fire."

Kim couldn't disagree with her, instead agreeing, "Yeah, sometimes they can really suck." Jumping up, she held out her hand and said, "But I bet they'll give their all for this…"

"Heh…" Shego took the offered hand and sat up. "I hope so. For Drew's sake…"

* * *

"Time for me to go." Kim sighed as she got up from the bed. They'd decided to take a nap, the beds too tempting to not take advantage of.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" Shego asked, hopping off the bed and stretching.

"Positive," Kim said reluctantly. The redhead was adamant that she had to be back to college that same day. She needed time to do homework, after all, as well as some activities that she wanted to squeeze in that night and the next day.

"Well, I guess I'll walk you to your car…" Shego shrugged, but Kim could tell that she was a little upset.

"We can do more some other time," Kim offered.

"That'd be nice." Shego smirked, her spirit raised. "I'll look forward to it."

The walk to the car was fully of inconsequential talk, mostly about fashion and celebrities. Shego was, apparently, surprised by how many Kim knew personally. That, in turn, surprised Kim. She'd thought it was public knowledge that she'd helped people like Britina and MC Honey?

Sadly, it wasn't long before they found themselves at the Sloth.

"So then…" It sucked that they had to say goodbye. It had been like hanging out when Shego had been reverse polarized: fun, relaxing, and overall nice. But all good things had to come to an end…

"Yeah…" Shego shrugged. "Time for you to go, Princess."

Kim nodded, unlocking her car. Then, on impulse, she gave her mother a hug. "I'm going to miss you," she said, meaning every word.

After a moment, Shego hugged her back. "Yeah, Pumpkin, I'll miss you too."

It took a minute for Kim to willingly let go of the hug. She hopped into her car, trying to think of the next time they'd get to see each other.

"See you later, Kimmie." Shego smirked as she waved behind her at the beach. "If you need me, you know where I'll be."

"Yeah…" Kim nodded. "I'll see you later." With that, Kim flew off in the Sloth.

* * *

 **A/N:** Not everything needs to be dramatic. Sometimes a slice of life is a good break.


	5. GJ and Drew Lipsky

Dr Betty Director sighed as she signed off on another piece of paper. Another useless bureaucratic piece of nonsense. But, it had to be done. Who else would do it? It wasn't like she could hire someone to sign off on another order of stun watches for the recruits… Could she?

...that would involve even more paperwork to even get the request brought up in a meeting, let _alone_ it actually happening. And it wasn't like she could depend on anyone else in this place to follow through.

Sometimes she envied her brother. The head of an organization that listened to every beck and call _without_ the need to hold their hands.

...no. That was a wrong way to think. Global Justice celebrated the diversity of humanity and their ability to overcome the impossible whereas WEE was all about stepping on any and all potential outside of Gemini's own perverse ideas. Selflessness versus selfishness.

Betty shook her head as she grabbed the next piece of paper in her enormous pile of overdue paperwork. Looking down at it, she smiled.

Ah. The bills for the treatment of one Drew Lipsky at one of their best facilities.

Looking closely at it, it was strangely normal as far as treatments went. Balancing and counterbalancing medications to deal with megalomania, delusions, mania, depression, and his various mutations, and psychological help to deal with the figurative scars and mental blocks still left from his treatment at her twin's hands.

She'd _wanted_ to help the man when he'd been initially discarded by her brother. She really had. But, as she now knew, the wheels of bureaucracy refused to turn for most of the little men. And, as sad as it was, Drew Lipsky had been one of those little men, playthings in the fight between good and evil.

At least they were able to help him now. Taking out the entirety of WEE certainly raised him to the status of 'important', and wasn't it in the best interest of the public to go along with the rehabilitation of a hero from the Lorwardian invasion?

Thinking back, Betty was certain that Kimberly was hiding something rather important from her regarding Drakken and Shego. Something which apparently involved the redhead personally, if the clues she'd dropped during their initial meeting and the subsequent negotiation meeting were anything to go by. But, again, bureaucracy tied her hands as far as getting intelligence on the situation. It was considered unimportant, thus it _was_ unimportant in the eyes of the government stooges.

She happily approved the payments.

The next piece of paperwork was for malfunctioning cameras...

...in the ducts leading to the evidence warehouse.

 _That_ caught her attention.

* * *

"What is missing?" Betty strolled in to the evidence warehouse, her gaze focused on the bright yet mousy woman that was tagging beside her.

"Well, that's the strange part…" The agent adjusted her glasses as she noted, "It's all a lot of exceptionally bland inventions. None of them even close to being in the vein of taking over the world!"

"Really?" Dr Director raised an eyebrow, stopping in the middle of Aisle J. "What was stolen?"

"If our inventory is to be believed, it's, well, a bunch of nonsense." She pulled out a list. "A temporal distorter - a machine to freeze time outside of a specific area, and one with a rather limited range to boot, a collection of serums confiscated from various mad scientists including DNAmy and Dr Drakken, random mechanical components and tools, for what I couldn't tell you as it was considered junk from when WEE's first base was raided, Gemini's mechanical hand, a miniature teleporter, and a dimensionally expanded bag."

"Gemini's hand?" Betty could only think of her brother as being the one to go after that, or the items from his first base. But… But why the rest of it? What use would any of those items be in reviving WEE?

It sounded like her brother was diving back into his maniac tendencies once again. It would be fine… She'd survived the last several turns he'd had before. What was another one?

"Make sure to get those cameras working _as soon as possible_ ," Betty growled. "Check with Wade Load, make sure to keep him in the loop-.." She paused. Loop. "...how were the cameras broken?"

"They, uhm…" The other woman flipped through her papers. "It seems that they're showing empty ducts and such, even when the other sensors go off."

"...fascinating." Betty internally sighed. Wade… What happened to have made him loop the cameras? Externally, she said, "Get with Mr. Load. Make sure that he knows what's going on. I'm willing to bet that he can fix it without needing to spend the money on new cameras…"

"Y-..Yes ma'am!" The agent saluted before skittering off into one of the nearby tubes.

Betty sighed, this time out loud. She knew that she would have to remove Wade Load from the GJ mainframe. While he was becoming invaluable in reorganizing their database into something halfway usable, it was unforgivable to purposely weaken GJ's defenses. This exact situation was what resulted from such abuse of power. She had _no idea_ who could take his place, as he was the best in his line of work...

Sometimes it was awful being the boss.

* * *

"Today's the day." Shego said it casually, but Kim knew it was more important than what she was giving it credit.

"Yeah, today's the day…" Kim repeated with more meaning.

They were currently gathering at the Caribbean lair to join up in one transport. Shego had insisted that they take the hovercar for something more familiar. The day was very important...

Today was the day they picked Drakken up from treatment.

"Are you sure I should come with, KP?" Ron looked at his BFGF, confused. "I mean, I know we're engaged and stuff, but this seems more of a not-not-family thing."

"Positive." She gave him a hug. "I need the moral support…"

"Moral support?"

"Yeah…" Kim leaned in, whispering, "What if they couldn't help him? What if he's still… Sick?"

"Ah, gotcha." The blond nodded.

Shego finished messing around with the hovercar's tank and asked, "Are you ready, kids?"

"Ay ay, captain!" Ron shouted, hands in the air.

Shego raised an eyebrow.

"Er, I mean, yes?"

"Okay…" Shego jumped into the front seat. Then, snickering, she called out, "Children in the back!"

"Aw man!" Ron pouted. "Eighteen and _still_ treated like a kid!"

"It's fine," Kim said to him, rolling her eyes at Shego. "Just ignore her. I think she's nervous."

"Okay I guess?" Kim boosted him up into the hovercar before jumping in herself.

Shego sighed, a frown on her face. "Next stop: GJ hospital…"

* * *

They waited uncomfortably in the lobby area in front of a rather plump, friendly woman at a desk. The only noise present was the woman's pen scribbling on some paper and Shego tapping her fingers on the arm of the chair she was sitting in. Ron was taking in some of the fliers. Kim, for her part, was just sitting, tapping her foot silently.

Waiting. It was strangely nerve-wracking.

Then...

"I have legs!" they heard Drakken complain from behind the heavy set of doors leading to the ward.

"Sorry…" an apologetic voice sounded from the same direction. "It's policy."

"Bah! Policy… That policy is _stupid_!"

A male nurse with dark hair wheeled Drakken out in a wheelchair. His bags hung off the back of the wheelchair and a deep scowl was plastered on his face.

Kim stared at her dad. He was dressed in beige slacks and a polo shirt, similar to the get-up he'd had when they stopped his plot with the cupcakes. He had also apparently gotten a haircut, with his mini-mullet missing. He still had his weird mohawk hair. But, overall, he looked about the same. Except for one distinct difference.

He wasn't blue. He looked almost… _Normal._ Save for a strange feeling about him, probably the mad science bit of him, he looked to be a normal, everyday guy.

"Can you walk?" Kim stupidly asked, completely taken aback by the significant lack of blue and the wheelchair.

He frowned deeper and snapped, "I'm sick, not invalid!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Shego brushed off his bad behavior and asked, "So, how do you feel?"

Drakken… Drew? She wasn't sure what he wanted to be called, seemed taken aback. "I, erm…" He really thought about it. "I feel… Less itchy?" He shrugged as he stood up.

The nurse withdrew quietly, eyeing the scientist like he'd been a problem patient. Probably because he had been.

Shego rolled her eyes. "I meant _emotionally_ , you doofus."

"Oh. Uhm…" He twiddled his fingers. "I guess, well, I'm confused."

"About…?"

"Everything." He rubbed his head. "It feels like everything was a blur. A bad, strange blur." Looking at Shego, he asked, "Did we…" He seemed uncomfortable asking, then bent in and whispered something in her ear.

Shego gasped, then whispered, "Drew…" She then pulled him in for a big hug. "Doc, you _remember_ …!"

"Not everything." Kim's dad pulled away. "I, erm, remember some of the… _Stuff_ …" He looked away. "The ouchy stuff… There's still mostly a blank from where the brain-tap machine was used. So, no college, no baby. Just the, erm, _bad stuff_."

"Oh." Now it was Shego and Kim's turn to be uncomfortable. Apparently trying to change the topic, Shego pulled at his shirt and asked, "So, what's up with this get-up? I know we packed it, but I didn't actually expect you to _wear_ it…"

"They felt like I needed a 'change'," he said, quoting with his fingers. " _I_ think it's stupid, and plan on changing back into my labcoat and pants as soon as I can!"

"Doctor's orders to not wear it?" Ron asked. "'cause that sounds like a doctor orders thing to me."

The scientist cringed. "Erm, maybe?"

"'Maybe'?" Shego eyed him.

"...they're afraid of a relapse," Kim's dad pouted. "Relapse… Like I would _want_ to be itchy and megalomaniacal…"

"So they managed to fix the whole 'conquering the world' thing?"

"Medication is magical," he said flatly, then sighed, "I'll be stuck on them for the rest of my life. Seven, SEVEN, different medications! _And_ they kept me separate from the other patients as if I'm some leper or something!"

"At least it'll help," Kim said, giving him a side hug.

"Yeah! We won't have to be all hero-y at you now!" Ron exclaimed. Then, scratching his head, he asked, "So, uh, what do we call you?"

"Eh?" The other man tilted his head.

"Like, are you still Drakken? Or is it Drew now?" Kim was secretly relieved that Ron asked that.

Rufus shrugged.

"I, erm…" The now not blue man shrugged as well. "I guess call me Drew? I'm not _against_ Drakken… But…" He looked uncomfortable. "Drakken is more… Take-over-the-world? Supervillain? Not really my cup of tea."

"Ewww, you drink tea?" Ron made a face.

Drew sneered, "It's a _saying_ , you… Erm..." He stared. "...what's your name again?"

Kim rolled her eyes. Of _course_ he still wouldn't remember Ron's name. The universe could never be that fair.

"His name's _Ron_ ," Kim said insistently. "You know, the guy I'm dating?"

"Hi!" Ron took Drew's hand and began shaking it violently. "Ron Stoppable, Kim's BFBF, darn glad to meet you!"

Drew narrowed his eyes and squeezed Ron's hand. Hard. "...I _**still**_ don't approve of you, Buffoon!"

"Ouch!" Ron withdrew his hand, dramatically holding it with his other hand. "Aw man! Really?"

"Yes, really!"

"Well…" Kim looked at Shego, who shrugged and smirked. Deciding she might as well, she said, "You'll have to get used to him. Ron's not going anywhere."

"Oh please." Drew rolled his eyes this time. "It's not like you two are going to get married…"

"Actually…" Ron scratched the back of his head. Kim coughed and Shego laughed at the same time.

"Wait…" The older man looked between the three of them. "Am I missing something?"

"Yes." Shego snorted back a laugh. "Yes you are."

Drew looked between Ron and Kim, paling. "You don't mean…?"

"Yeah… Uhm…" Ron put an arm around Kim, who did the same in return. "Surprise! We're gonna get married!"

"I… But… You…" Drew began to sputter, looking between the two teens faster and faster. Then, head bobbing, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell over.

"...yeah, went about as well as I expected," Shego said, shaking her head. She then bent down and picked her husband up. Looking at the two gobsmacked teens, she asked, "So, what did you wanna do now?"

* * *

"..-and that's how I invented the Naco!" Ron said proudly.

"So, you and the doc _do_ have more in common than just being dorks," Shego observed, giving her significant other a smirk as they raced over the Gulf of Mexico.

"Hmph!" Drew crossed his arms and snorted. "The day me and the buffoon have anything in common is the day I eat my hat!"

"You don't _have_ a hat," Ron pointed out. "Unless… Did you eat it already?!"

"I just… You just… Nnnngh…" Kim's dad slapped his head. "It's another saying, you idiot!"

"Ohhhh, okay, gotcha."

"You don't need to be that hard on him, Doc," Shego said. "It's not like you're much better some days."

Drew grumbled but didn't say any more than that.

"So then…" Kim looked between her parents. Now would be as good a time as any... "I, uhm, was wondering…"

"Hm?" Drew turned to give her his full attention, Shego less so due to her driving. "Yes, what is it?"

Breathe. In, out. "You guys are getting married still?"

" _Recommitment ceremony_ ," Drew insisted.

"Right…" Kim tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. "I was just… Wondering…"

"Yes?" Now Shego's full attention was on her too, likely having activated some kind of autopilot.

"...would you be willing to get married together?"

"Together?" Drew tilted his head. "I don't understand."

Shego seemed to get it. "Hm… I dunno… It'd be pretty weird, having the same anniversary…"

"What?" The mad scientist blinked a few times. "What are you two babbling on about?"

"They wanna get married on the same day we are, Doctor D," Shego filled in.

"WHAT?!" Drew boggled at his daughter. "But, that's only a few months away!"

"So?" Kim resisted pouting.

"Nuh-uh! No! Not happening!" Drew crossed his arms in front of him. "You'll wait a good year, and you'll like it!"

"But…" She initiated her greatest weapon. "But Ron and I've been friends for forever!"

"Yes, and _dating_ for…" Drew narrowed his eyes as he lowered his arms. "...you're doing that thing again."

"Ugh." Shego averted her gaze from their daughter. "The puppy dog pout…"

"Kim's superpower," Ron said.

"Nnnnngh…" Drew looked away, but his resolve was clearly crumbling. Suddenly, he jumped as if lightning struck him and said triumphantly, "Then how would I be able to walk you down the aisle?"

"You and my dad could walk me at the same time and join me and Shego at the altar," Kim said, not letting up at all.

"You might as well give in, Doctor D," Shego wisely said.

"Hmph!" He flopped back, grumbling. "Fine! You can get married with us."

"Promise?" Kim knew better this time around.

He squirmed. "I, uhm…" Drew looked everywhere _but_ at Kim.

"Dad? _Pwease_?" Her eyes were literally starting to water now, the effort of keeping them open during the ride back making them dry up.

"AaaaaaaaaaaaFINE!" He shouted, holding up a pinky. "I promise that you can get married with me and Shego!"

Kim shook his finger triumphantly. "It's a date!"


	6. Drew and Kim

"Are you sure you have to go alone?"

Kim was hanging out with Shego and Drew for the weekend. Or, at least, she was _supposed_ to be. But Shego had apparently changed her mind after a phone call with her brother, Hego.

"Yeah. This is a strictly brother/sister thing." She shrugged. "It'll just be for overnight. Don't worry about it."

"What about Kimberly?" Drew grumbled. "You're leaving her high and dry!"

"Oh, quit whining you baby!" Shego said with a wave of her hand.

"Gotta admit, it _does_ defeat the purpose of us hanging out as a family if you're gone," Kim pointed out, getting up from the couch to join Drew in looking on at Shego disapprovingly.

"Why don't you two have some bonding time?" the green woman suggested as she hefted her overnight bag over her shoulder. "Really get that father/daughter bond going!"

Drew whimpered, "But _Shego_ -.."

"Have fun, kids!" Shego's laughter rang even after she was out the door.

The two of them stood there, staring after her. Then they turned to each other.

Silence reigned for a solid minute.

It was _so_ awkward.

"So…" Drew twiddled his fingers, looking between the door and her like he wanted to run away. "...what do most father/daughter people _do_?"

"My dad and I… Uh..." Kim sat back down on the couch, thinking. What in the world _did_ she and her dad do? They didn't actually spend much time together beyond the few times he came to watch her at her cheerleading competitions and standard family hang-out time now that she was thinking about it… "We play board games?" She looked over at him. "What did you and your dad do?"

Drew shrugged. "My dad, erm, _ditched out_ when I was little. I didn't really have a male role model…"

Ah. That explained a few things.

"What about, uhm…" He was clearly reaching. "...bowling?"

" _Ugh_." Kim shivered. "I haven't been able to look at bowling again ever since Ron kept wearing his bowling shirts over and over sophomore year."

Drew blinked. "Who's this 'Ron' guy?"

"My fiance?" The redhead sighed. He was _never_ going to get his name right.

"Oh! Right! The buffoon!" Her dad slapped his forehead, then snarled, "Leave it to him to ruin something as pure as _bowling_!"

"Hey now, that's my significant other you're talking about!" Kim complained. "It's not like I talk about you or Shego like that to him!"

"I wouldn't expect you to! Neither of us is as annoying as him!" Drew retorted. "What in the world do you see in him, anyway?"

"Ron's loyal, funny, nice…" Kim started counting off. "I can depend on him when I need him, he's weird-.."

"Since when is _being weird_ a good thing?"

"I _like_ weird," she defended. "It's interesting."

"Hmph!" Her dad crossed his arms. "In _my_ day, weird was weird! No one liked weird!"

" _You're_ weird," Kim pointed out.

Drew sputtered for a few moments, then growled. "Fine! So what if I'm weird? It isn't like anyone liked me back then."

"Shego did," she said slyly. "So she found weird interesting too."

"Ugh!" He grumbled, "Both of you, smart alecks!"

"Like mother like daughter?" Kim suggested.

"Bah!" He grumbled, pulling his arms even closer to himself. "Fine, the buffoon isn't entirely a buffoon…" A finger poked out from under his arm and waved at Kim. "But don't expect me to approve of him just because you like him!"

"I don't _like_ him…" Kim started, a cat-like grin on her face.

Drew looked relieved. "Oh thank goodness! I thought that-.."

"...I _love_ him."

He stared, then threw his hands up in the air. "I walked _right_ into that one, didn't I?"

"Kinda, yeah." The smirk never left Kim's face.

"Nnnngh…" Drew growled, "I don't want him being part of my family tree!"

"Ron isn't _that_ bad," Kim said, annoyed at how dramatic Drew was being.

"From _my_ perspective, he is!" He began pacing. "He's lazy, unmotivated, a complete idiot…" He stopped mid-step and said, "...that's all I can think of. BUT!" A finger raised into the air. "That's _enough_ for me!"

"I can't deny that he's a bit lazy… And sometimes he's unmotivated… He is _not_ an idiot, though!" Kim gave a heartfelt sigh. "He's smart when he needs to be. Not book smart, but clever. He has warm brown eyes that are like a hot stove in the middle of winter…"

"...or a warm cup of cocoa moo…" Drew said, a vague look in his eyes.

Kim wasn't entirely sure what cocoa moo was - it was teasing at an old memory, of what she wasn't sure - but she decided that it must be a good thing. "Yeah." Even just _thinking_ about Ron was making her feel butterflies in her stomach.

"Hm…" He looked thoughtful. "Okay…"

"So you're going to stop bugging me about Ron?" Kim asked, hoping his grunts and comment were meant to be acceptance.

"What? No!" Drew shook his head. "I just… I understand now. If just a little."

She gave him a wide smile. Understanding was a big step in the right direction. Now if only the two could spend more time together, to really bond as father and son-in-law...

"Anyway…" He resumed looking awkward. "...what do we do now?"

Kim paused. "I don't know. We could just shoot the breeze a bit like we were just now?"

"All day? Bah!" Drew scrunched his nose up. "I don't think I could handle that much inane babbling."

"You do realize you're partly talking about yourself, right?" she asked, pointing a finger at him.

"I, uhm… I just-.. Nnnngh…" He grunted, "The fact stands! That much talking without doing anything would _reek_ of boring…"

"I can't think of anything else," Kim said with a shrug.

"...let's do our own thing!"

"What?" She looked up at him, confused.

"Let's make it up as we go along!" Drew said excitedly, spinning on the spot. "Make our own traditions!"

"Really?" Kim tilted an eyebrow at him. "Make our own traditions?"

"Yes!" He was clearly getting into the idea. Turning to her, he exclaimed, "Let's build a robot!"

"Huh?" She stared at him.

"Let's build a robot together!" Drew repeated. "Or, oh! I can tell you about my various inventions! The ones that you _haven't_ managed to blow up or destroy!" He waggled his eyebrow as he offered, "I can even show you how to operate some of them!"

Kim's lip twitched. He really seemed to be into it, offering to let her mess around with his stuff?

"Sure," Kim said with a small chuckle, getting up from the couch.

He practically squeed in reply.

* * *

"..-and _this_ is a bamboozler!" he proudly stated, waving a hand at what looked like a glorified firecracker.

"What does it do?" Kim asked, looking it over.

"It explodes!" An all-tooth smile met her gaze.

"...yeah, I'm going to put this down now," she said, setting it back where it had been sitting.

"Oh! Ohohoh!" Drew danced over to a shelf that was obviously too high for him. He jumped a few times, eyes focused on a toolbox of some sort. Growling, he made a flower pop out of his collar. "Grab that for me!"

The flower, a very worn-looking pink daisy, rose up and began wrapping around the box in question.

"What's wrong with it?" Kim asked, surprised at it struggling to bring down what looked like a basic old toolbox.

"Hm?" Drew looked at the single partially wilted flower as it noisily and shakily dropped the box in front of him. "Oh, yes. Uhm, some of the medications interfere with the hypollinator mutagen." He chuckled. "I'm actually very fortunate; normally, mutations from different sources don't mesh well. Trying to treat one could've resulted in the other getting worse, or, well, worse!"

"So, is it completely gone?" Kim asked, looking at the swaying vine.

"It's not _completely_ gone," he said, waving at the obvious evidence.

"You know what I meant."

"Hmph." Drew crossed his arms. "Well, they aren't nearly as strong as they were before I got help." He offered the vine to Kim. She hesitantly took it in her palm and watched as it coiled around her arm. It was clear Drew was concentrating, but the most force she felt was like a hard hand from a rather strong henchman. Wiping his forehead, he said, "As you can see, they're about as strong as a grown man."

"So you can only really use it anymore as an extra appendage," Kim stated as the vine retracted.

"Pretty much," he agreed, the vine coiling back into his body.

"Interesting stuff," she murmured, secretly glad that one of his main offensive weapons were reduced so much.

"Ohhh, if you thought _that_ was interesting then you clearly haven't seen my connector gun!" he chuckled, opening the toolbox and rummaging around in it. "Now then, where is i-.. GAH!" A yellow glow surrounded him, then faded.

Kim blinked. "What was _that_?"

"It was my malfunctioning truth ray," he answered his head jumping up and out of the box and looking at her with horror.

"...why do you keep a malfunctioning truth ray in a random toolbox in your lair?"

"Because I have a minor hoarding problem!" Drew said, exasperated, before trying to cover his mouth.

She smirked. "Is that the same one you hit me with when I was rescuing Doctor Wong?"

"I have no idea who you're talking about, but the answer is probably 'yes'," he replied, removing a hand from his mouth.

"Hm…" Kim thought about it for a second. "...so for the next few hours or so, you can't lie?"

"No, I can't!" he said, then covered his mouth again. Slowly, he opened his fingers and said, "I meant I can't. Erm, I meant no. Nnnngh…" He seemed to be struggling. "I _meant_ yyyyyy-.. No!"

Huh. Well, _this_ was an unprecedented opportunity. Her biological dad, unable to lie to her about _anything_ for the next day… He was lucky that Shego wasn't here!

"So then…" She circled around him like a shark. Speaking of Shego… It was time for some blackmail material. "...what do you think of Shego? The bad things about her, I mean."

He tried to stick a fist in his mouth, but was still able to talk around it. "I find her frustrating! She always feels the need to pick at me, no matter what or how I'm feeling! It feels like she doesn't care sometimes. And she doesn't seem to care at all about my great intelligence, either. She treats me like some everyday schmuck instead of the genius I am!" Drew spit his fist out, apparently deciding to give in to the ray on this point. "I'm partly sure that she sticks with me because she pities me. Because she had poor judgment when she was younger and ended up saddled with a permanent connection to me via you. I'm ugly bordering on repulsive, and that I would be alone for the rest of my life without her!" He crossed his arms and began pouting. "I'm waiting for the day that she just _admits_ that and leaves me alone to myself."

Kim blinked. Wow. She hadn't been expecting _that_. Maybe a complaint about her leaving her towels on the floor. She'd forgotten how blunt the ray made people…

"She doesn't think that," she told him. "She doesn't think that at all!"

"And how would _you_ know?" he sneered grumpily.

"We talked about it," Kim said with a shrug.

Drew blinked, then exclaimed, "I thought you said that you don't talk about me or Shego behind our backs!?"

"I said _me and Ron_ don't," she corrected. "Shego and I, on the other hand…"

"Perfect!" He threw his hands up in the air. "Everyone's conspiring against me!"

"I thought those meds were supposed to help _curb_ your paranoia," Kim said pointedly.

"I lied a little because I didn't want to end up a drugged-up zombie," he admitted.

"Really?" She tilted an eyebrow at him.

He cringed away. "Don't look at me like that!"

That would be something for another time, she decided. For now…

"Shego doesn't think that about you," Kim repeated.

Drew snorted. "Yes, because I'm going to believe _that_ after-.." Kim stomped over to the toolbox and began rummaging around. "...what are you doing?"

"This." She found the truth ray and poked it. As expected, it misfired and hit her too.

"What?" He blinked at her. "Why would you do that?!"

"Because I want to get the point across that Shego loves you," Kim said, giving him the stink eye.

Drew stared. "...okay, you've lost me."

Kim sighed and said, "She loves your personality. And she thinks you're kind of cute."

Drew snorted, this time an amused one. "If you hadn't shot yourself with the truth ray, I would be betting that she paid you to say that! Parental bribery and all."

"She wouldn't be able to bribe me with enough of anything in the _world_ to outright lie about something like this," she assured him.

"Good to know!" Drew said. "I'd thought you'd learned your lesson from the Halloween fiasco. It's part of why I listened to you and Shego when you said I was sick."

"Really?"

"Well, yes!" He looked at her. "I was secretly expecting it to be some kind of GJ plot or something to take away my intelligence and get me mocked at even more than I already am!"

"Huh."

"Yeah…" Drew coughed. "So then…"

"I have a few ideas of what to do next, but you're too old for most of them to really make sense," Kim said, then covered her mouth.

...she hadn't thought this through.

"...so, what should we do now?" Drew asked, clearly trying to ignore what she said. "I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of trying to show you around at my various inventions any more because the focus of most of them was to destroy you in an epic fashion and I would prefer if you didn't know how much focus I put into rendering you moot to my plots."

"...we could play board games?" she suggested again. "I don't want to go out and embarrass myself with the automatic mouth and I'd prefer it if you weren't there to add on to the embarrassment."

"Right…" He looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I'm not entirely sure what we have beyond 'Apologies!'..."

"'Apologies!' sounds fine," Kim rushed. "Anything is better than standing here trying to not ask or say something that would hurt either of our feelings."

"Right!" he repeated. Drew waved at her to follow him. "I shoved it in the hall closet along with the memorabilia of my mother because I'm still upset at her for not telling me the truth about things. It's also why I've been avoiding her by mostly sticking to the Caribbean lair instead of going all around like I normally do."

"Makes sense." Even Mama Lipsky, with her preternatural ability to know where her son was, couldn't walk on water.

"So then…" He was clearly reaching for a topic to discuss. "Uhm, what did you want to do for supper?" He brightened as he said, "Ohhh, Shego's not here. I could make the Lipsky family meatloaf! We both love it."

"I actually hate the Lipsky family meatloaf," she said bluntly. He stopped and stared, mouth open.

"You told me before that you _loved_ it!" he said, gobsmacked.

"I lied because I knew that it was important to you," Kim admitted, cringing at her honesty.

Drew narrowed his eyes. "So does that mean that you lied about liking the holidays too?!"

Oh boy.

* * *

"And that's when Ron's pants fell down," Kim said with a shrug as her piece knocked Drew's off the board yet again.

"Gah!" He brushed frustrated hands in his hair. "I had completely forgotten about how terrible I am at this game!"

"We could start playing a different one?" she suggested, placing her last piece in the finish goal, again winning the game.

"Nnnnngh…" He ground his teeth. "No! I want to play until I crush you under my boot!"

"And I think you're getting too upset over a game," Kim said, unimpressed.

"Fine." Drew pouted. "I'm not calm, but I'm trying not to get so frustrated that you'll quit on me."

Kim shrugged. "If you want to keep going, I'm game."

"Good! Because I am t-.."

An alarm went off.

"Sounds like the lasagna's done," Drew said, getting up from where he was sitting on the couch.

"Thanks for being willing to bake something we'd both like," Kim said.

He waved a hand in the air. "I want to impress you with my baking abilities because I want there to be _something_ that I do better as a father than James."

Both of them froze at the words.

"Erm…" Drew stared at her, deer-in-headlights. He then rushed out of his mouth as he ran for it, "WellgottacheckthelasagnaandIhopeyouforgetwhatIjustsaid."

"I won't, and I want to talk about it when you get back!" she called after him.

Fifteen minutes later, Drew still hadn't returned. Kim decided to go looking, expecting him to be grumbling to himself in the kitchen.

She found the lasagna cooling on the stovetop, but no Drew.

Kim hadn't really explored the Caribbean lair much, even now that she, Shego, and Drew regularly hung out. But, considering the circumstances, she felt it was necessary to go exploring a bit to see where her biological father had gone.

After checking various rooms - a weightlifting room; another, smaller lounge area with card tables set up; and a communal kitchen area - she came across a smaller laboratory that seemed to be nestled in the belly of the lair. In it, Drew was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked, walking in on him.

"GAH!" He jumped and spun around, again like a deer caught in headlights.

"What are you doing down here?"

"I was hoping I could avoid you the rest of the night by leaving you up there while I stayed down here until the truth ray wore off," he answered, then slapped a hand over his mouth.

"We need to talk about the whole 'father' sitch," Kim said, crossing her arms and lifting an eyebrow at him.

"I would prefer we not," Drew noted desperately.

"Why not?"

"Because I already realize that James is a better father than me," he said, again trying to stick a fist in his mouth. "I don't want to hear it from my own daughter."

Kim's eyebrow lifted even more. "What makes you think that Dad is a better dad than you?"

"Golly gee whiz, I don't know..." Drew said, the sarcasm so strong that Kim was pretty sure that even Ron would've caught it "...is it the fact that he was there for you when you were growing up? That he's _normal_ , like you?" He assumed a thinking pose. "Or maybe it's because you _always_ refer to him as 'dad' whereas I'm always 'Drakken' or 'Drew'? You can't even get the words out unless it's to make a point!"

Kim stared, then said, "I'm still getting used to this sitch. Just because I don't call you 'dad' doesn't mean that I think that much less than you! And you didn't _choose_ to abandon me-.."

"But I _did_!" he cut her off. "I left when you needed me most. _Real fathers don't do that_."

"Because of Gemini!" Kim growled. "You were _forced_ to give me up."

"Like that makes it much better!" Drew crossed his arms. "I should've been _better_ or, or _something_!"

"Will you stop being so stubborn about this?! _Why_ are you being so stubborn?"

"Because I promised that I wouldn't do the same thing my father did and I _did it anyway_!" he snarled, whether it was at himself or her she wasn't sure.

Kim stared at him. Then, slowly, she walked over to him and gave him a hug. "It's okay… We're still working on it. We'll figure it out. Besides…" She smiled. "There is something you're better than James at with being a father that _isn't_ cooking."

"Hm?" Drew tilted his head. "What in the world are you talking about? What could I be better at-.."

"I can talk about boys and my romantic life with you and have an _actual_ conversation," she noted.

He slapped a hand over his face. "He's _still_ a prude about that?!"

"Yeah." Kim took a step back and scratched the back of her head. "Every time I ask, if it isn't about shooting them into a black hole or about how I shouldn't be allowed to date, it's deflected to my mom."

Drew rolled his eyes and dryly said, "That sounds like James all right…"

"So yeah, James has his own faults as a dad…" Kim nodded and added, "Also, we've spent _how_ much time over the years together? I'd say that's a pretty big win in the 'spending time with the daughter' pool. So…" She looked up at him. "Do you feel better now?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I _do_ feel better." Drew made a fist and proclaimed, "And I'll do even _better_ than that! Oh!" Spinning on one foot, he said, "I could show up for your competitions as moral support!" He paused mid-pose, then bent around and asked, "You still do those, don't you?"

"Yeah; I'm part of the college cheerleading team," Kim answered.

"Right! I can show up and cheer you on!" The wide genuine smile he wore made Kim feel like a million bucks.

Kim smirked. "I'd rather you not because it's embarrassing, but if it would make you happy then go for it."

He got an evil look in his eye. "I will be the most _embarrassing_ parent there!" he proclaimed, giving Kim a side hug.

"Gee, thanks Dad," Kim said blandly.

Drew gave her an extra tight hug. "What're dads for?" He frowned, then said, "Though I do wish that I had gotten to see your cheering competitions from when you were in high school…"

An idea popped into her head...

* * *

"Alright!" Shego called out, walking in the front door. She was early, having decided to brave night driving to get out of the Go tower as soon as she could. Her brothers had _already_ started grating on her nerves in the short amount of time she'd been there. But she could understand her brother calling her like he did. The first therapy session was always the scariest.

And now she'd probably have to do some damage control with the doc and Kimmie. Goodness knows they have precisely nothing in common. Shego imagined that they sat there awkwardly, neither being willing to do anything because it might look weird to the other. Or the opposite, they argued over who would get to do what… Doc probably would've wanted to bowl, while Kimmie would've wanted to watch movies or something inane like that.

"Got the situation with my brother settled. So you guys can stop the awkward-.." She cut herself off as she observed the scene in front of her.

Kim was strapped to the memory machine, it sitting on a small card table that they'd apparently set up instead of the back of the room. It was projecting a much smaller image, the last scene that it had was what looked like her on top of a cheerleading pyramid. She and Drew had apparently fallen asleep together, both of them propped against each other to stay up. Empty plates sat on the small card table, of what Shego wasn't sure. It looked cheesy.

All in all, it looked like a classic family scene of watching old family videos.

She smiled. Maybe it really _was_ a good thing she'd left them alone...


	7. Drew and

"There!" Drew put the finishing touches on the small toy that he'd been working on. A miniature train that was solar powered. He was hoping that maybe, again, him and Shego would luck out and have another child. The toy would be for them. What would they look like? Probably more like their mother again, if Kimberly's appearance was anything to go by.

Kimberly and Shego had gone off to have a spa day or two at Shego's favorite resort. The mud baths and hunky men were _definitely_ not Drew's scene, so he'd opted to stay at the lair and have some 'me' time.

He'd made good on his promise to embarrass Kimberly at her various cheerleading events. For some reason, that seemed to spur James to do the same. The two men combined their efforts to cheer her on, increasing her embarrassment severalfold.

Man, it was fun being a dad.

Kimberly had been trying her best to incorporate him more into her life. Invited him over to more, different events than her cheerleading competitions. Even started calling him 'Dad' casually, like it was a normal everyday thing instead of an emergency attention-getter.

Effort. He appreciated it.

Drew hopped up from his desk and let loose a victorious laugh as he again contemplated his successful invention. He knew that if Shego'd been there she would've teased him, and Kimberly would've at least rolled her eyes. But he couldn't help it if he was excitable!

A flash out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. And then, a familiar voice.

"Hello, Drakken."

Drew froze. Shaking, he turned.

Gemini. Gemini was _in his home._ Standing there like he belonged there. In his hands was a strange triangular machine. It looked like a cheaply-made teleporter... It would explain how he got there so swiftly and quietly. Beside him was a large satchel.

" _I WANT PROJECT UTOPIA!" Gemini screamed, dragging the blade towards Drew's eye socket._

Drew collapsed to the floor, dropping the toy train, and crawled backwards away from the villain until he hit the wall. He wanted to call his vines if just to have some reassurance, but he was _so scared…_!

"Are you ready for round 2?" Gemini asked with a sneer.

"I have Project Utopia!" Drew cried, desperately trying to think of ways to keep it from happening again, to keep from feeling the _sheer terror_ and _pain_. That's what the one-eyed man had wanted all those years ago, right? Drew had all of GJ's records still! He could give it up, keep the nightmare from happening all over again! "I can give it to you!"

Gemini chuckled. "You think I want that musty old project?" He began to walk towards the shivering man, carrying the satchel with him. "No… What I want is more simple." He pulled out a metallic ball with a variety of buttons on it from the satchel. Pushing a few, he stated, "I want to hear you _scream."_

And he did.


	8. Gemini and Agent Alpha, Part 1

"Dad!" Kim walked into the Caribbean lair's large room that led in from the outside door, Shego tagging close behind. After they'd finished their spa treatment, Shego had insisted on shopping. While Kim wasn't against getting nice stuff, it seemed like a bit of a mean move to leave Drew all alone for even longer than the extra day they'd ended up spending at the resort. Still, Kim gave in and they spent part of the day shopping at the biggest mall in the world before heading back. It wouldn't've hurt much; Ron was supposed to pick her up soonish as she had, again, lent him her car, so even if they were late at least Ron and Drew could have hung out. "We're here!"

The lack of response didn't worry her. When they'd left, he'd been in the middle of one of his invention spurts. He was probably in his lab working on even more inventions to patent or just entertain himself with.

"We brought you stuff!" Shego called out louder.

"How touching," a voice that was definitely not Drew's uttered from the couch.

"Who…?" Shego and Kim both dropped their bags by the door and walked over to the couch. There, to their shock, Gemini sat, drinking from a short brandy glass.

"Hello," he said with a smirk, tossing the drink to the side. It hit the ground and broke audibly. "Welcome home…"

"Where's Doctor D?" Shego instantly demanded, taking a few steps towards the madman.

"Hm?" Gemini made like he was thinking. "Oh. Are you talking about that nutball that had the audacity to wrap me up in vines?"

"You know _damn well_ who I'm talking about!" the green woman growled.

"He was _kind_ enough to make me a newer, nicer hand. He even managed to upgrade it some," Gemini said, chuckling, purposely dodging the question as he flaunted his mechanical hand. Kim realized that yeah, it _did_ look a lot shinier and newer than the last time she'd seen him, with strange ports on the top of it. From a loop on Gemini's belt his older hand hung, still nicer than the last time Kim had seen it.

" _Where is he_?!" Shego lit her hands up.

"Ah ah ah!" He settled a finger over a button on his mechanical hand. "While _you_ don't know what this does, I can assure you that it will be very… _Unpleasant_ for him.

"You see, I worked very, _very_ hard on my revenge…" Gemini got up from the couch and circled around the women to the other side of the room.

"I thought, what could be worse than what I'd done to him, and you? How could I make it worse than plain old torture? Then, it came to me as I was looking through all of the mad science gadgets I found in Global Justice's evidence locker!" Gemini chuckled. "Some of them he even recognized. It was still… Interesting… Seeing how well likely expired mutagens worked. Of course, I didn't realize his mutations were simply suppressed, so imagine my surprise and joy when he mutated even _more_!" He gave a genuine laugh of pleasure. "Those so-called _scientists_ of mine thought they'd gotten everything out of him that they could… Clearly they weren't as visionary as I am!"

"You monster…" Kim muttered, mouth gaping in horror.

"Please, Kim Possible," Gemini said, waving a hand in the air as if clearing it. "You haven't even heard what I did!

"It was, at its basic form, a _delightful_ combination of the mutagens I found, some brainwashing tools, one of which was _his own formula_ , and good old _torture…"_ The one-eyed villain looked thoughtfully at the two. "Tell me, do you happen to know what _flaying_ is? I didn't when Drakken and I had our initial sessions all those years ago… It's how I learned about his incredible healing ability!

"But enough about that…" Gemini smirked. "How about I tell you about the end goal I had in mind for him?"

Shego sensed movement behind her.

Swiftly, she dodged to the right, sweeping Kim into her arms along the way. It was a good thing she had; long, sinewy vines crashed down where they had been standing, leaving the ground and couch broken in their wake.

"You idiot!" Gemini growled. "I had them perfectly distracted and you _wasted_ it!"

" _I'm_ the idiot?" Drew's voice grumbled in return. "Who couldn't hold their attention long enough for me to hit them!?"

"Is that any way to talk to me!?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Lord Gemini!" She could hear scrabbling on the floor. "It won't happen again!"

Shego's heart dropped into her chest.

"It'd _better_ not…"

Kim had a clear view behind her. Her jaw dropped and tears were forming in her eyes.

Shego was afraid to look. But… She _had_ to. What else _could_ she do?

She swiftly flipped around, staying in front of Kim in a guarding pose.

Drew was kneeling on the ground in Gemini's direction. Nearly to the second that Shego had turned around he got up and looked at the two women.

He looked like a hot mess.

His hair was stringy and dirty, crusted with blood and who-knew-what, hanging in wild clumps. His clothing, his normal lab coat and pants, were, strangely, impeccable. The only additional clothing was some kind of strange metallic collar around his neck. His face was marred by a few fresh-looking scars, none of which were quite as vicious as the large gouge under his eye, but still noticeable.

His eyes… They were so bloodshot that it looked like he'd stained the whites of his eyes red. Somehow, his skin was now a midnight blue, even darker than his coat, which was bumping up in random areas around his shoulders and back from something under it, Shego couldn't tell what.

Last, but certainly not least, was the smile he wore. A rictus all-teeth smile, so wide that it must have hurt. With sharp-looking teeth, so much different than his regular all-flat underbite.

"Hello, my dears!" he said cheerfully.

"Drew…" Shego said, covering her mouth.

"He is no longer Drew, Drakken, or whatever else you call him," Gemini announced proudly, "He's my new _Agent Alpha_!"

The newly-declared Agent Alpha let out a crazed giggle, teeth flashing.

"Now then…" Gemini pointed at Shego and Kim. "It's time to _dispose_ of those two!"

Barely a second passed before there was movement.

Shego and Kim split, each going in opposite directions.

She was glad Kim had the same idea she had: divide and conquer.

To Shego's dismay, it was her husband that chased after her. Gemini turned and went after Kim, rockets and lasers firing from his apparently upgraded hand. The green woman cursed as Kim ducked into the kitchen, where Shego was unable to see, but she quickly realized that she had her own problem to deal with.

The apparent Agent Alpha practically zoomed in on her, running as fast as he would normally _away_ from something, vines zipping out of his sleeves and collar. There was an intense look of concentration on his face, like she was the only thing that mattered. Normally it would touch her, but the insane glint in his bloodshot eyes and the wild laughter erupting from his mouth made her feel otherwise.

" _Shego_ …!" he shouted, attempting to surround her with his vines. She easily blasted them all away even as he closed the distance and began to foolishly try to take her on in one-on-one combat.

Idiot. Didn't he remember that _she_ was the one that had taught him?

It was easy to defend against him, and even give a few good blows. Ducking around a haymaker, Shego delivered a chop to his neck that would down most people.

Unsurprisingly, all it seemed to do was make him angry.

"You're _stupid_ if you think you can take on Lord Gemini!" her husband yelled, trying to get her with an uppercut. "He _changed_ me, he'll change you too!"

"And we can change you _back_!" Shego claimed, personally unsure of it this time. She let loose a one-two shot of plasma and drove him back a few steps.

"Lord Gemini said to dispose of you, but I think he's willing to do something else! I think we could all serve him! Together!" her husband announced grandly, holding his hand out magnanimously. "We can be a family, crushing his foes and-.."

"Yeah, not gonna happen." She concentrated a blast and shot him clean in the chest. He went flying across the room, skittering along the ground before almost cartoonishly smashing against the wall. She patted herself on the back for that one as he crumpled to the floor. That should've knocked him clean out. Easy enough.

She skipped over to his prone form, vines loosely scattered on the ground, expecting to have to give one last little knock-out nudge of plasma to him. Normally that's all it would take to _really_ make Drakken pay for bugging her. All that was left after this was cornering Gemini with Kim and making him pay for what he did to her husband.

As she bent down to administer the final touch to his exposed forehead, a vine twitched.

She'd forgotten one key detail, she realized as he looked up at her with victory in his face: this wasn't Drakken.

Suddenly, every loose vine around her burst to life, grabbing and twisting around her. She blasted most of them away with her plasma, but the few that got her made it harder and harder to fight. Shego quickly found herself physically tied up in a multitude of vines.

Agent Alpha got up from the floor and dusted himself off. "Well then…" He smirked at her. " _That_ was easy enough!"

"What're you gonna do?" she challenged, trying to light up her plasma to sheer through the vines holding her arms. He frowned at that, having clearly caught on, and used his vines to force her hands against her leg, palms facing partly towards her leg. She realized it was the same thing they'd done when they'd cornered Gemini all those weeks ago. If she used her powers, she'd take a chunk out of her leg as well.

"I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're worried about," he said, walking over to her. "I'm serious about us serving Lord Gemini as a family. Why not? He'll rule the world soon, and wouldn't it be better to serve under him than be crushed by him?"

"Did you lose a few brain cells with whatever he did to you?" Shego asked, trying to squirm away from him and buy precious time for Kim to come and help beat him after she finished with Gemini. "His base is _gone_. His army is _gone_. He has _nothing_."

"He'll have _us_ ," he insisted, flipping Shego around so her back was to him. Vines began wrapping themselves around her neck, as did his hands.

"We can be together," the agent murmured, wrapping his hands and vines more tightly around her neck. "All I need you to do…" he kissed what little space was available "...is go to sleep…"

Sleep. That didn't sound like that bad of a plan. Everything was gray, and her body was feeling heavy...

"You, me, and our Kimberly..."

Yeah… What was wrong with being… With… Family…?

* * *

 **A/N:** As with the previous story, if you stick with it after this you're a saint. I will say, if you paid attention in previous chapters your attention to details will probably help some with explaining what's going on in this and the next few chapters.


	9. Gemini and Agent Alpha, Part 2

Kim skittered across the linoleum floor in the kitchen, hoping to confine the space that Gemini could use to assault her. A laser suddenly blasted above her head, singeing the wall next to the fridge.

It was bad enough when he had rockets, but lasers too? When in the world did her dad have time to make that for him? It would've taken at _least_ a day, and Kim was pretty sure that whatever had changed Drew into _that_ would have eaten up most of the time that Kim and Shego had spent at the spa even if her dad had broken right away!

"Ha! Got you!" Gemini made his way through the doorway and aimed, all four rockets going off at once.

Kim ducked under their family heirloom table, using it as unfortunate cover from the rockets. As expected, the rockets destroyed the table and accompanying chairs. The heirlooms did their job, though, as all the rockets failed to make it to her. She ran around the island and ducked down, waiting to see what Gemini's next move would be.

"Oh grand. You want to play glorified peek-a-boo then? Fine!" He jumped up onto the island, aiming down at her head. "Peek-a-boo, I see you!"

"No you don't!" Kim did a backflip up and over him, grazing the overhead light. She tagged him with a quick punch to the chin before she tried grabbing his legs and pulling.

He fell over roughly, his chin cracking against the quartz countertop as he lost his footing and toppled over backwards. Shaking his head and grabbing his jaw with his non-robotic hand, he growled up at her, "You little pissant! You think you can stop me with _that_?!"

"No. _This_ , on the other hand…" She delivered a quick punch to his trachea, hoping to stun him.

He barely reacted beyond getting angrier.

"Eat this!" He aimed his hand in her face and fired off a laser.

Kim backflipped in succession, ending up back in the main room of her parent's home. There, to her shock, Shego was encased in a practical cocoon of vines with her father crushing the life out of her via her neck.

" _Mom_!" Kim shouted. She began running for the two, hoping it wasn't too late, when a rocket whizzed by her head.

"How _dare_ you forget about me!" Gemini growled behind her. He aimed another rocket at her and sneered, "Good luck dodging this!" before firing.

* * *

" _Mom_!" a distant voice screamed.

Shego recognized it.

 _Kimmie_.

That snapped Shego out of it. Enough, anyway. She was still trapped, and still graying out, but she had her faculties back to her for the most part.

She did the only thing she could think of in her desperation for air.

Lighting up as hot as she could, she burned through the vines, burned through her leg, burned through his coat, burned through _everything_.

"ACK!" Agent Alpha jumped back and unwound his vines from her, grabbing at his leg. Just like Shego, he'd lost a good chunk of it and vines to her attack. Glaring, he asked, "So, you want to do this the _hard_ way? Fine!" His vines whipped around him.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Shego gasped, glad for the air. Even through her choked breaths she wondered… She had expected at least a _little_ bit of whining from him. Her own burned and throbbing leg was probably nothing compared to his, what with her focusing the flame to her palm.

His gaze shifted to the newly emerged Gemini for a moment. "I…" He shook his head. "I've had worse! I could _have_ worse!" He began stomping towards Shego with a distinct limp. "Stop trying to distract me!"

Shego was still seeing some gray spots, but she had recovered enough to resume the fight.

* * *

Kim ducked under a rocket as she saw her mom blast free of Agent Alpha's grip. The blast looked like it hurt them both pretty badly, but Kim had her own share of trouble to deal with before she could help Shego.

"Stand still so I can _kill you_!" Gemini shouted, aiming one of his knuckle lasers at her. Kim somersaulted over and around it. It kind of reminded her of the McHenry laser grid. Just had to keep moving, keep flipping, keep away from the glowing ray of doom.

"Good luck with that!" she heard Shego call out in reply.

"Shut up!" Gemini turned his attention towards Kim's parents. "Alpha, you had better make her _shut up_ or I'll-.." Face, meet boot.

Kim had used the precious few seconds to close in on the one-eyed villain. She'd loosed a kick that would've made even Shego wince back. Gemini was no different, staggering around drunkenly from the blow. A shake of his head, though, seemed to clear the fog.

"You think you can take me in one-on-one then, hm?" Gemini made a 'come hither' motion. "Give me your best shot."

"My pleasure." Kim made to move in again, then realized that his hand was still raised. Almost too slow, she dodged out of the way of a rocket that would've taken her head off. Grimacing from the rough tuck-and-roll she had to do to escape it, she wheezed, "What happened to one-on-one?"

"Psha!" He spat, aiming a finger at the teen, "I'm a _supervillain_! I don't play fair!"

" _So_ not cool!" Still, she had to close the distance to get to him. And it was clear that he was going to do his best to keep that from happening. She needed _help_.

Then, eyes settling on something, Kim got an idea. She began to run across the room, looking to get to a specific piece of equipment.

"Why. Won't. You. DIE!" Gemini shouted, continually sending out a barrage of missiles and lasers. Kim hopped, skipped, and jumped over many of the missiles, a few cutting it too close for comfort, and dodged around the lasers.

She got to her dad's favorite laser drill, the one that he'd apparently only recently used to try and open a gherkin jar. It only took a moment to aim it.

"Take this!" she commented with some amusement at Gemini's gobsmacked appearance. At the same time that she pushed the button, he let off his full arsenal: four rockets and two lasers, all aimed at the machine Kim was shooting him with.

A bright red glow encompassed the area...

* * *

"Shego, would you please stop resisting?" There was a plea in his voice now as his vines thrashed and grew vicious thorns. His teeth glinted as he seemed to unconsciously giggle. "I promise, if you give in now he won't kill you!"

"How reassuring," Shego said flatly. "I bet he'll do everything under the sun other than that, though, huh? Like he did with you?"

Her husband grunted, "I was different! I refused to listen to him! I was a _fool_!" He walked towards her, again a hand out. "You don't have to make the same mistakes I did!"

To Shego's surprise, after only a few steps he was no longer limping. A quick look at his leg explained it and made her feel queasy all at once. It was mostly healed somehow, but instead of midnight blue skin there was what looked like bone peeking out of his flesh in a little mound, pressing against the edges of the hole she'd burned into his clothes. That helped to complete the picture… So _that's_ why his clothes had odd lumps…

Shego shivered at the idea that presented itself, that those mounds were created _after_ he'd mutated… She wondered if he'd been burned clean through there, or if his flesh had been carved out like Gemini had implied earlier.

"Doc, we aren't going to join you," Shego stated even through the disgust. " _Please_ stop trying to-.."

"Well FINE then!" he growled, withdrawing his hand. "I _tried_ to save you! I tried! But you won't listen!" His vines shot out towards her. "Let's see if you change your mind when you're _begging for mercy_! After all, _what are a few broken bones and concussions between_ _ **family**_?!"

She was ready for them.

Shego danced around, hands flashing and flaring at the various tendrils that came towards her. Every few swings she would let loose a few blasts at her husband. She caught on pretty fast that he could either dodge the blasts or command the vines, but not both.

Smirking, she realized that she had this in the bag.

Instead of focusing her blasts at the vines, she decided to start dodging and weaving through them. Her plasma instead began finding their home in Agent Alpha's face. He sputtered back, vines thrashing with no rhyme or reason each time her blasts found home. His lip began bleeding, and his clothes began coming apart as the flames began to lick at them. He didn't seem to notice the fire, his gaze completely taken with trying to get his vines on her.

She began closing in again, this time assured that she could take him on in close quarters.

He seemed to realize the same thing as he started to try and use his vines even in the midst of getting hit by her plasma blasts. Of course, he failed; even if he didn't seem to be feeling or caring about the pain, the concussive blasts were distracting enough.

Eventually, finally, she got within arm's reach. Just as she was about to give him the punch of his life right to his face, an explosion ripped through the room. Both Shego and Alpha went flying, each of them hitting the far wall.

They were both slow to get up, the blast being strong enough to knock the wind from Shego's lungs. She looked over to the other battling duo and gasped.

Gemini and Kimmie were both splayed out. Shego couldn't tell if either were breathing.

"Kimmie!" Shego staggered to her feet and hesitantly tried to make her way to her daughter. To her shock, she suddenly found her legs pulled out from under her as vines wrapped around her ankles and lifted her up.

"I tried to stop it!" Her husband wound up his vines and smashed her into the ground. Before she could aim at him at all, he picked her up again and smashed her into the wall. "You wouldn't listen to me!" Another slam, this time into the ceiling and then to the ground. "Now I _have_ to hurt you!" He began to flail his vines around, slamming her time and again into the ground, the wall, anywhere the vines could reach. He screamed, "LOOK AT WHAT YOU'RE MAKING ME DO!" before launching her across the room.

She smashed clean through the giant computer that Drakken had installed against the wall. Sparks went every which way as Shego was electrocuted. The pain was nearly indescribable, every nerve firing off at once.

Finally, thankfully, it was over. Shego fell out of the machine, crawling her way out from the glass and ruined machinery. She looked back towards her husband, who was closing in again with a sharp-toothed snarl on his face, then back to where her daughter was laying.

She hadn't moved at all from under the wreckage of the doc's favorite laser weapon. Neither had the prone form of Gemini, his mechanical hand looking to be partially destroyed.

Shego didn't care about the fight at the moment. She only cared about Kim.

Ignoring the apparently implacable blue man, Shego staggered over to her where her daughter was laying and fell over next to her. She put a hand to Kim's face and waited. To her relief, the redhead was still breathing.

"I'm going… To…" Her husband came up to them then stared. He looked as if he hadn't noticed the scene before, as if the explosion had never happened. Then, cautiously, he asked, "She's… She's okay, right?" He twiddled his fingers.

"She's _breathing_ , if that's what you mean," Shego growled, trying her damnedest to recover some while he was flabbergasted by the scene. The fight wasn't _nearly_ over, and she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

"I… I…" Fingers and vines twiddling at max speed, he said, "Is anything broken?"

Shego took a quick look at Kim's body. Wincing at the weird angle her daughter's elbow was achieving, she noted, "Looks like she broke an arm." She listened to Kim's chest and said, "Doesn't sound like anything punctured her lungs, so she's safe on that front…"

"Thank goodness!" he slapped his head. "If Lord Gemin-.." He then looked around, panicked. "Lord Gemini…?" Then, finding him in a crumpled heap a short ways away, he screamed, "LORD GEMINI!"

Abandoning the two women, he ran over to his boss and began looking him over. After a bit of light shaking, the one-eyed man groaned and began sitting up.

"What was-.." He stopped as he tried to rub his head with his destroyed hand. After realizing it was gone, he muttered, "Agent Alpha, report. What. Happened?"

"Well…" Kim's father shrugged. "Something blew up."

"I KNOW THAT!" Gemini looked to be counting to ten under his breath. Taking another breath, he asked, "I meant _after_ that!"

"Oh! Erm, not much…" He shifted his gaze to Shego. "Just having a family disagreement."

Wow. Crazy way to say that he was beating the hell out of her.

The one-eyed villain frowned.

"You know what happens when you fail me…" Gemini warned, fingering one of the few buttons on his wrecked hand that looked to be working. It looked to be the same one from earlier.

Her husband whimpered, twiddling his fingers. "I-.. I haven't failed you! I promise!"

"Then why is _she_ -.." Gemini waved at Shego "..- still alive?!"

"I, erm…" Looking embarrassed, he mumbled while kicking at the ground, "I had an idea that they could join us."

"I don't pay you to _think_ ," the one-eyed villain grumbled.

Apparently offended, Agent Alpha stated, "You don't pay me at _all_!"

"That wasn't always going to be true," Gemini insisted. "Good boys get stipends."

"And what determines if I'm a good boy? Give me an objective measure!"

While the two bickered, Shego worked to wake Kim up. She looked in her leg pouch for some of her smelling salts and, feeling blessed that they were still intact, applied them to Kim. It took longer than Shego hoped for, but eventually Kim stirred. Shego put a hand over her mouth when it looked like she was going to start muttering pained nothings. _That_ fully woke Kim up and, slightly panicked, she looked between Shego and her father with an increasingly worried frown.

"..-and _that's_ how you get to have a stipend!"

"Hm…" Agent Alpha thought hard and said, "I have to admit, that isn't a bad system…"

"See?" Gemini looked at Shego, apparently looking for a second opinion on the topic. "I'm a fair if harsh boss, aren't I?"

"You're kidding me, right?" Shego looked at him as if he was nuts, because he was.

"Oh, right, you aren't dead yet." Gemini waved in the direction of the two women. "Agent Alpha, _take care of them_."

"Oh! Erm…" He awkwardly turned to Shego and asked, "Are you, uhm, okay?"

"THAT ISN'T WHAT I MEANT AND YOU _KNOW_ IT!"

The other man cringed. "Can't we recruit them? Please?"

"Yes, because they look like they're going to go along with any plans I have," Gemini deadpanned.

"You don't know until you ask!" Clearly Shego's loud-and-clear messages from earlier didn't hit.

"Fine!" The one-eyed villain shakily got to his feet and asked Shego, "You're not going to join me, are you?"

"...what's your view on vacation days?" Might as well buy more time for Princess to recover.

Gemini was gobsmacked while Agent Alpha looked over-the-moon. Shaking it off, Gemini said, "I don't believe in vacation days."

"Not even for weddings or anything?" Shego asked with a tilted eyebrow.

"If you have time to get married, you have time to work!" Gemini growled.

"Doc and I're supposed to get married and-.."

" _Recommitment. Ceremony._ "

"Whatever." Shego rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we're supposed to have a _thing_."

"Well, that _thing_ would need to be cancelled!" the villain said peevishly.

"Yea-.. No." With that, Shego blasted both Alpha and Gemini away from the two women with separate one-handed blasts. It didn't pack the punch that a full-on assault would, but it gave her and Kim the space they needed to get back up. Shego hopped to her feet and offered a hand to her princess. "You okay?"

Kim winced as she stood. "I think my left arm might be broken, but otherwise I'm good."

"I thought so."

The two men climbed back to feet, Gemini glaring at his underling and growling, "See? You _have_ failed me!"

"Please please _please_ don't…!" Alpha begged, falling back to his knees.

"Don't _what_?" Kim asked. Shego winced at the question, knowing what would happen next.

" _This_." Gemini pushed a button on his hand.

The collar around Alpha's neck hissed. Then, eyes bulging, Kim's father screamed and fell to the ground.


	10. Gemini and Agent Alpha, Part 3

" _What did you do_?" Shego growled, stomping over to the villain.

"Ah ah ah!" Gemini swiftly waved a finger from his flesh hand before resuming its place on the button, clearly having sensed weakness. "I can keep doing this all day!"

That made Shego pause and repeat, "What did you do?!"

He chuckled. "Why don't we watch the show and find out?"

Shego growled, but obediently turned to watch whatever was happening to her husband.

Alpha screamed again. The bony-looking mounds seemingly exploded, bursting out into vicious spikes. Correction...

 _Thorns_. They looked like large, bony thorns.

"Fascinating…" Gemini muttered. "This mutagen seems to be reacting to his other mutation…" He gave a low chuckle. "I suppose this is what happens when you mix mutagens from different mad scientists…"

A strange tinkling noise caught Shego's attention. Looking back over at her husband, she realized that his teeth were falling out. One by one, most of them fell to the ground. In their place, long and thin needle-like teeth erupted from his gums. All but his front teeth apparently suffered that fate, the front few staying in place, if a bit crooked.

From his forehead, around his hairline as if it were a barrier, erupted several varying-length bony thorns, twisting around each other to form almost horn-like protrusions. It was obvious they hurt coming out; blood was dripping down his face in small rivulets.

His chest enlarged, his ribcage puffing out considerably. His clothing strained to keep it in. Miraculously, even with the damage, it did.

Her husband rolled onto his knees and pounded the ground with a fist. Unlike most transformations Shego had seen, this one seemed to take the cake for pain. _Was_ it because Gemini had mixed maddie formulas…?

Any which way, it didn't matter.

Shego hesitantly made her way over to her husband. She was still wary of him attacking her, but she wasn't sure if he was even cognizant enough to realize what was going on. He looked like he was in intense amounts of pain.

"Drew?"

"I…" he managed to say thickly, pain laced in his voice and drool and blood falling from his lips. "I…" His face shot up, eyes flashing. "...AM AGENT ALPHA!"

Shego jumped back as vines again began whipping about, trying to catch her. She managed to flip next to Kim, who was cradling her arm. Kim's dad took the opportunity to stand.

"Good!" Gemini laughed, then pointed with his good hand. "Kill them! Then, make me another new hand!"

"Yes, Lord Gemini!" Alpha moved towards the two women, murder in his eyes.

"What was in that collar?" Kim asked as she took a worried step back from her dad.

"It's loaded with more, different mind control serums than Drakken's - specifically keyed to _me_ \- and some of DNAmy's more... _Experimental_ mutagens," Gemini explained with a careless shrug. Then, smiling, he said, "You're in for a _world_ of hur-.."

Then, inexplicably, Ron wandered in. "Okay, KP, I'm here to pick you u-.." The other four stared at him as he looked around. "...I have no idea what is going on, but man, Drew, you look _bad_."

"... _ **BUFFOON**_!" Alpha began charging him, vines flailing angrily.

"No, you idiot!" Gemini slapped his face with his organic hand. "I didn't mean _him_ when I said kill them all!"

Her husband stopped. "But…" He looked torn. "You said kill _them_ …"

"He's inconsequential," Gemini said with a wave.

Alpha paused, then slowly nodded.

"Aww man, really?" Ron crossed his arms. "Even after beating the Lorwardians I don't get any respect!"

"Ron!" Kim looked absolutely relieved. "Gemini's here! Drew's brainwashed! I'm hurt and She-.."

"What?!" The blond looked at Kim like it was the first time seeing her. Then, aghast, he yelled "KP!" and began running for them.

Agent Alpha sneered with a slight lisp, "What do you think you're do-.." before Ron casually shoved him aside. He seemed so taken aback by the action that all he did was stand there, staring at the back of the running sidekick.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked as he ran up to the two women.

"My arm's broken," Kim said, indicating her left arm. "Gemini-.."

"What are you doing?!" Gemini shouted at Alpha, cutting Kim's explanation off. "Get them!"

Kim's dad let out a strange noise, almost an animalistic snarl, before he again charged, this time at the three of them.

Ron said, giving the one-eyed villain a concentrated look as Rufus jumped out of his pocket and skittered towards the edge of the room, "That's Gemini, right?"

"RON!" Kim shoved him and dove for cover as her dad passed by like a freight train. Shego blasted him in the face before diving for cover herself. This was a life-saver as he lost control of his vines long enough for all three of them to dodge through the practical cloud of them.

Clearly surprised at how fast he managed to go, Alpha sputtered to a stop a couple of meters away from the group. He turned and growled again, eyeing Kim.

"We could really use your monkey mojo about now, Sidekick!" Shego shouted, shooting off a few blasts at her husband.

He barely flinched this time at the body shots, practically snorting with disdain at Shego's efforts. "Too little too late!" Alpha said, chuckling as the last of the labcoat he had been wearing burned away. Thankfully for Kim's sake, his pants were, for the most part, intact.

Now Shego could see what Drew was always embarrassed about with the vines coming out of him… It was like bulging veins, popping clean out of his arms and neck in branching clumps. A bit unsettling… But Shego was _more_ distracted by how foreign the thorns looked. They were scattered about haphazardly on his body, wickedly barbed at the ends and the base. Thankfully, in her opinion, they seemed mostly settled on his back and thighs, including the spot where Shego had burned him earlier. She wondered… Did they hurt? How much pain was he in now, just _existing_?

She shook her head. Now was _not_ the time to get distracted by stuff like that!

Ron stepped between her husband and Kim. "I'll take him." He looked over his shoulder at the redhead. "You guys got Gemini?"

Kim smirked. "Without his arm? Should be child's play!"

"Ha!" The villain laughed, latching his old arm onto the now-empty stump. "At least that oaf served as enough of a distraction for this!" Gemini aimed his fingers at Kim, smiling evilly.

"...okay, it'll be a little bit harder now," she admitted. "But we got him!"

"Good!" Ron's entire body was encompassed with a blue glow. He made a 'come hither' motion at Alpha.

The blue man sneered at Ron, stomping towards Kim. "As if I'd bother with you!"

Ron grabbed his arm. And Alpha stopped moving.

The sneer dropped from the larger man's face. "What the-.." was all he got out before Ron threw him halfway across the large room.

Gemini's jaw dropped. "Since when can he do _that_!?"

"Since the invasion," Kim answered with a shrug.

The one-eyed villain growled. "Be that as it may, you _still_ can't beat us!" He dropped his flesh hand onto his mechanical arm and pressed a button. "Especially after I pump him full of so much mutagen he'll-.."

A hole opened up next to him.

"...what." Gemini looked between his older model hand and the scrapped remains of his newer one that he'd tossed to the side. He attempted to go for the hand, but found it was torn out of his reach by Rufus, who ran off with it. With a disappointed frown, he muttered, "...I did not think this through."

"No, you didn't," Shego replied as she loosed a ball of plasma at him.

* * *

Across the room, Ron was having a bit of a harder time than he'd expected.

Since the sitch with the Lorwardians, he'd been cruisin' pretty hard on his MMP. Kim didn't notice because she thought it was all glow. There was a subtle use to it that he'd been taking advantage of, lining things up better in key with KP. With it in full-on mode, Ron had felt unstoppable.

But now, he was finding that he was having too much trouble going easy on Drew. If he went all-out, he might kill him, and Ron didn't think he could handle that on his conscience.

At the same time, Drew seemed to have absolutely zero problem with trying to kill Ron. The blond wasn't sure if it was because Drew really did dislike him that much or what, but whatever it was he hoped that the raging madman would start calming down enough for Ron to not have to resort to worst-case scenario. Heck, Drew had even tried _biting_ him! And those teeth looked like they'd do some serious damage!

Ron was dodging and dancing around the vines and Drew's attempt to grab him, stab him, anything he could manage as best he could while trying to shoot off a few punches of his own. So far, the glancing blows that Ron had managed didn't seem to do much. He'd had to pull a punch a couple of times to keep from hitting the ouchy-looking spiky things sticking out of Drew's skin, which saved the blue man from pretty solid hits.

Then, a slip-up.

Ron had been trying to avoid another attempted biting when he jumped up.

He'd forgotten about the horns.

The left one struck home, sticking into his left side like he was a particularly plump Naco getting poked through with a toothpick. Ron pulled himself off at lightning speed, adrenaline pumping, when a couple of vines took the opportunity to grab onto his wrist.

"Oh boy," Rufus said from the sidelines.

Drew began swinging Ron around even as the blond fought to get loose from the vines. "You!" Slam! "Stupid!" Slam! " **Buffoon**!" Slam!

Ron finally managed to break free of them and throw Drew away with those same vines, but the battering and horn-y attack he took hurt pretty bad. If there was one thing that his MMP was not designed for, it was defense.

"Look at you," Kim's dad sneered as he stood back up, staggering slightly. "Just a little bit of a beating and goring and you're already breathing hard."

"Look who's talking!" Ron said, trying to nonchalantly dust himself off as if the bleeding wound in his side totally didn't bother him. "You were having trouble standing just now!"

Drew frowned. "No I wasn't."

"Yes you were!" Ron pointed at the blue man. "You're totally lying!"

Drew rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Lord Gemini has no use for a pawn that can't take such easy hits!"

"'Lord Gemini'? Like, when did he get a title?" Ron asked, confused.

"He just-.. You just-.. Grrr…" Drew's face turned a deep, barely-perceptible purple. "Once again, you prove your incompetence!"

"Uhm, yeah…" the blond trailed off, thinking. "That's a school word…"

"You are an _idiot_!" the blue man shouted as he began charging again, this time with a touch of incredulity in his face.

Ron dropped down into a defensive stance, risking for a moment to take a look at Kim, Shego, and Gemini…

* * *

Gemini swallowed as he shot missiles every which way he could manage. This was _not_ going according to plan.

The original plan had been simple enough. Brainwash Drakken into killing his family, then gloat as he regained his senses and realized what he'd done. But now it had been complicated by the two women _refusing to die_!

How _dare_ they interfere with his scheme! They _deserved_ their comeuppance! Pepe _demanded_ it!

Maybe he'd overestimated the mad scientist's mind control formula. Whatever it was, Gemini was certain that if it had been anyone else, they would've been _dead_ by now! Drakken _must_ have been taking it easy on them; being cowed by the threat of more torture along with traces of mind control were clearly not enough even for someone as weak-willed as Drakken. The blue man had clung too hard onto the hope that his family would've joined WEE of their own free will.

It looked like if he wanted a true Agent Alpha he'd have to continually use the mind control serum to its full effect on him. But, considering Drakken's performance otherwise, Gemini felt it wasn't too bad of a thing to be stuck doing, especially if additional mutagens made him even more powerful than he was now. It was truly interesting, seeing the interaction of the chemicals in his body. He was excited at the opportunity to create his own personal super soldier...

Right now, though, the one-eyed villain was in trouble. Shego and Kim Possible were outmaneuvering him. The second he went after one, the other would start to close in. They were on opposite sides of him, flanking, and he was certain he would be stuck in hand-to-hand combat with both of them shortly.

Even with a broken arm the redheaded girl seemed entirely capable of handling herself. Impressive, if annoying.

Gemini finally decided to give in to the fact that it was about to be reduced to melee combat. He lit his mechanical hand up with electricity and backed up to try and force them to come at him from the same direction.

They were having none of it, to his frustration. They kept the flank up, following him until he hit the wall.

He cursed at himself. How did he not notice how close they were getting to the edge of the room?

"Ready to give up?" Kim Possible asked, calmly waiting. Gemini knew better than to assume that she was anything but ready for a fight.

Gemini's eye narrowed. "You don't have me beat yet!" he snarled, even as he took a quick look at Drakken and realized he was in an apparent and surprising stalemate with the blond boy. That meant that he was stuck taking them both on alone… Even then, he wasn't about to give up! "Bring it!"

The two women closed in on him from opposite sides.

The one-eyed villain decided to take down the weakest link first. He swung at the redhead with his mechanical arm, electricity arcing off of it and towards her.

She dodged under it. To his consternation, Shego took his back, blasting him hard with some of her powers. The scent of singed flesh was worse than the pain, but it was still annoying.

He swung his flesh fist at her, hoping to clothesline her and at least knock her back.

Again, it failed. She not only leapt over it, she got in a windmill kick on top of it!

He wiped his chin, which was now bleeding. Apparently it was far different going melee combat with two women who knew how to fight instead long distance with one of them and an inexperienced man with superpowers.

He growled, then aimed a missile straight in Kim's face. Playing fair was for _chumps_.

"Good luck dodging this!" Gemini fired it off.

It barely made it off of his hand before it was quickly shot down by a blast of plasma.

Shego almost nonchalantly wrapped an arm around Gemini's neck.

"Yeah, time to go nighty-night," Shego said, a finger on her other hand encompassing with a shot of plasma.

"AGENT ALPHA!" Gemini shouted as the green woman pressed her finger to his forehead, hoping his underling would make it to him before-..

Everything went dark.

* * *

The shout from Gemini did not go unnoticed.

Both Ron and Drew turned in time to watch Gemini slump to the ground between KP and Shego.

"LORD GEMINI!" the spiky man shrieked before he abandoned combat with Ron and ran at the two women with a snarl on his face, apparently intent on rescuing the one-eyed villain.

It was the opening that Ron had been hoping for.

Ron flipped onto Drew's back, using some of the spines to balance on as he grabbed a handful of vines and wrapped them around the blue man's neck.

"Ack!" Drew gasped out before the blood was cut off from his brain. He flailed, attempting to reach behind him and pull Ron off with both his hands and vines.

The blond leaned backwards, putting more pressure on the other man's neck as he pulled harder with the leverage. This time he put his all into keeping the same pose, resisting the vines' attempts at pulling him off.

Eventually, Drew's flailing slowed, then stopped as he wavered drunkenly before he passed out, falling to the floor with a resounding 'thud'.

"A-booyah!" Ron crowed, letting go of the now-limp vines. "Got it done!"

"Good job Ron!" Kim cheered.

"Not too bad," Shego said, swiftly walking over to check on her husband. She bent down and put her hand to his mouth. "...yup, still breathing."

"Okay…" Ron turned to KP. "So, what's going on?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Hope that I managed to do action right... Thanks for the encouragement, MrDrP and Mengsk! I really appreciate the input. I like slice of life stuff, so I wanted there to be more of it for this, to really show how their lives have changed, see things from a family angle, and give Gemini time to get his ducks in a row. I do get what Mengsk means by there not really being a 'story', though. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it together better in the upcoming stuff. Though, again, I like slice of life... :/


	11. Agent Alpha and Drew

_Another minute. Just make it another minute. They'd be back soon… They_ had _to be back soon! Any minute now!_

 _His hands were alight with pain, the blood dripping down his arm in branching streams._

 _Drew shrieked as the blade finished its job. Again, the chill of the air bit at the newly-exposed digit._

" _That's three down on this hand…" Gemini touched each of the fleshless fingers with his gloved hand, making Drew whimper and cry at the dulled yet sharply painful impact. "I wonder, how much longer can you last, hm? It's been…" He checked the time on his watch. "My goodness, a full three days of fun! Well, in_ here _, at least…" Chuckling darkly at some kind of secret joke, he leaned in to Drew's ear. "Do you want to know how long it's been_ outside _?"_

 _Drew looked up, confusion and pain fighting for space on his face. Outside…?_

" _You remember that ball from when I first arrived? The one with all the buttons?" Gemini smirked as he stood back up. "It was a temporal distorter…"_

 _A temporal…? Drew's jaw hung loosely as the horrific realization hit him._

 _Gemini laughed, a full-on belly laugh. "Oh goodness, the look on your face… I wish I could simply capture it for forever…" He nearly wiped at his eyes before he apparently remembered about the blood. Instead, he settled for shaking his head._

" _H-.. How long?" Drew choked out._

" _Outside of this little time bubble, it's been…" He checked a different clock across the room. Drew followed his gaze and felt himself filled with more fear and horror._

 _Thirty minutes. It had only been thirty minutes for everyone else._

" _As you can see, the area the distorter covers is not that great. But for my purposes?" Gemini sneered. "It's_ perfect _. Now then…" He flourished the blade. "Back to business, hm?_

" _I. Am. Lord. Gemini. Am I not?" Another cut, another peel._

 _Something_ broke _._

 _In his mind, something snapped. A switch flipped._

" _Yes, Lord Gemini!" Drew screamed hoarsely._

" _Hm?" The one-eyed man paused, blood pooling on the now-still blade's edge. "What was that?"_

" _Yes, Lord Gemini…" he sobbed again, quieter this time, his head falling forward in defeat._

 _Gemini chuckled, satisfied. "Good…" he set the knife down and began removing his gloves. "I'm glad we've had our little…_ Break _through…" He grabbed a nearby cloth and began to wipe off the remaining bit of blood on his wrists and clothes. Once tidied, he wrapped Drew's right hand up with gauze. For some reason, he didn't care about the new blood on his hands as he bandaged the injured man up._

" _What do you_ want _?" Drew desperately asked, whimpering quietly between words._

 _He chuckled again. "You'll find out in due time. For now…" Gemini finished winding the gauze on and went back over to the satchel that he'd, seemingly miraculously, pulled the rack and his tools out of at the start and reached in until his torso was almost swallowed. Making a eureka noise, he began pulling himself out and said, "I do believe you'll be familiar with our next guests…" The baggies of mutagens, as old as they were, were still extraordinarily recognizable. "I'll need your help with this…"_

" _You want me to help you torture me?" Drew boggled._

"Modify _," Gemini suddenly insisted. "I want you to help me_ modify _you." His eyes flashed as something occurred to him. "Is that any way to speak to your lord?"_

 _Drew cringed, his eyes darting to his gauze-covered hands, before he quickly sobbed, "No, Lord Gemini!"_

" _That's better… Now then…" Gemini brandished a couple of the baggies. "Tell me how to set these up…"_

* * *

"..-ing up!"

"..-im out sta-.."

"..-rying, he's still waking-.."

Groggy. So, so groggy. And confused.

 _Kill them!_

Who was them?

Everything hurt, nothing was right, where was he, _what was going on_ -..

Then, a spark of memory.

A blond haired, brown-eyed boy, choking him out with his own vines.

 _ **The buffoon**_

He _remembered_ now.

Lord Gemini…

He tried getting up from laying on his stomach. He felt resistance, like he was tied down. Agent Alpha couldn't see anything, his vision being blocked by a visor of some sort, but he could still _hear_ and _feel_ , especially through his vines.

"He's _definitely_ awake now!" a panicked voice called out from Alpha's left.

A tingle, kind of like a small scream, was echoing in the back of Alpha's head. It sounded like him, yet he wasn't screaming at all.

 _Kill them!_

He obeyed.

His vines struck out, grabbing at whoever and whatever they could. He wasn't sure who he was grabbing, but Lord Gemini had ordered him to kill them, and that was all that mattered.

Alpha felt his vines grab onto at least a half-dozen people. He wasn't entirely sure which parts he was grabbing. The blue man was certain he'd managed to wrap one person's head, a boon for them as that meant a swift death... Unlike the others who were unfortunate enough for him to have grabbed mostly non-essential limbs.

All it would take was a _little_ pressure-..

"Agent Alpha, STOP!"

Alpha froze as his lord commanded.

A ragged breath out, the voice of Lord Gemini, captivated the blue man's senses. It sounded a bit like relief… But why would his lord be relieved at Alpha not following his initial orders?

...it didn't matter. All that mattered was what Lord Gemini wanted now.

"Release us," Lord Gemini commanded.

 _Us_? Agent Alpha contemplated that phrasing for a few moments as he released everyone from his vines. Then, he realized…

"Lord Gemini!" he said, panicked, his vines curling up around him, "I, I didn't mean to grab you! I was just, just followin-.."

"'Lord' Gemini?" a female voice cut through, sounding amused. "So you're a lord now?"

"Shut up, _Betty_!" snarled Lord Gemini. "He's _my_ underling, and he'll call me whatever I want him to!"

"Yes, I heard… Agent Alpha?" A dry, unamused chuckle from Alpha's right. "I should've expected you to do something this monstrous…"

"I'd prefer to think of it as visionary," he countered.

"It's just _sick_. What would Mom think if she knew what you'd done to his poor man?" Alpha felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"AGENT ALPHA, CRU-.." His lord's voice choked a little, then went quiet.

"Lord Gemini?!" Alpha began to get worked up, struggling against the bonds that were around him.

"Be careful," the voice of the woman said calmly. "You don't want to hurt your 'lord', do you?"

No, he did not.

He stopped flailing.

"Good call." Whispering for a few moments, so quiet that not even him listening intently could make the words audible. Then, she asked, "Are you still under the effects of the mind control serum?"

"I do as Lord Gemini wants," Alpha said simply. "He is all that matters."

"...I'll take that as a yes."

Alpha had no idea what his lord had wanted him to do after stopping, and he was afraid of injuring the one-eyed man if he fought as blind as he was.

So he did nothing, even as a cloth was put over his face.

* * *

" _Stupid hand!" Gem-.._ Lord _Gemini was messing around with his mechanical hand at Drew's workbench, using a screwdriver to try and adjust some of the inner workings of the machine. "Why won't you work?!"_

 _Drew was currently hooked back up to the mutagens, letting them slowly pump into his body. He'd lost some of his teeth, sharp incisor-like ones growing in their places, and he was certain that the rest would follow with the continued application of the mutagens. It was pretty obvious to the again blue man that Gemini's scientists had stopped their experiments in some strange attempt to keep him from permanently mutating at all. An odd consideration considering he was supposed to be disposed of as soon as they finished experimenting on him._

 _Drew was scared. It was obvious some of these newer mutations were going to be more permanent, and thus less treatable, than the previous blue skin and vines had been. He never liked messing with his own physiology due to all the things that could go wrong. It wasn't his choice, though…_

 _He looked over at his lord again. It was_ him _that was making him do this. As much as Drew hated him, he also felt a strange need to please him… He was pretty sure it was probably Stockholm syndrome, or the mind control serum that Lord Gemini kept putting into Drew's food in small amounts, or_ something _. Either which way, Drew could feel himself starting to lose it._

 _He really wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing at this point. Lord Gemini still hadn't told him what he wanted. ...it might be better if he simply couldn't care anymore._

" _Agh!" Lord Gemini tossed the screwdriver to the side and tried to use his hand. It twitched erratically, then stopped. His lord turned to Drew and snarled, "I blame_ you _for this, Alpha!" At Drew's questioning look, he elaborated, "I broke my hand disciplining you! If you hadn't made me do that, I wouldn't have broken my hand!"_

 _It was true. Drew had one of his rebellious streaks, trying to fake turning the IV drip on, warranting Lord Gemini backhanding him. It opened up a vicious gash on Drew's face, but more damaged the hand somehow._

 _Drew was preoccupied with the idea that it was_ his _fault. Because that meant another educational session, and the blue man's fingers had_ just _finished healing from the initial sessions with his hands. He had the increasingly intense healing factor he was displaying to thank for that, though it apparently didn't prevent scarring. If anything, it made it_ worse _._

 _The other educational sessions had focused on his back, leaving large chemically-burned areas. They'd healed…_ Wrong _somehow, but Lord Gemini wouldn't tell him how they'd healed. Just that it was another apparent mutation._

" _I can make you a new one! A better one!" Drew claimed eagerly, it being the only thing he could think of to keep from being disciplined. He began to mentally map out exactly what he would need as he muttered, finger on his chin, "I just need the materials… A measure of your arm circumference… And…" He looked up and got a pleasant surprise._

 _An interested, amused smile on Lord Gemini's face._

 _It made Drew feel like a million bucks._

" _Go on…" Lord Gemini said as he sat back in his chair, clearly wanting to hear Drew's idea out._

 _As the blue man excitedly began pointing out all of the ways that the mechanical hand could be fixed or even improved, he internally sighed with pleasure. Finally, he was doing something right._

* * *

Agent Alpha groaned as he struggled back to consciousness. His head pounded, blood rushing in his ears as he tried - and failed - to raise himself from the ground. He felt like someone had taken a train, got it going at full speed, and jammed it _right_ into his frontal lobe. Everything he could remember was a blur of confusion, itchiness, and pain. _Lots_ of pain.

The same screaming noise from earlier was echoing in his head, but louder and more concentrated. It almost sounded like he was sobbing on top of it! It was starting to get _amazingly_ annoying...

He finally succeeded in getting up. And, to his horror, he'd woken up alone.

Nothing nothing _nothing_ ever good came from Lord Gemini leaving him to his own devices! It usually meant a test, and Alpha hardly _ever_ passed his tests! He hadn't even been left instructions, which meant that-..

...wait. He took a good look around. This didn't look like the Caribbean lair.

It was a much smaller, practically barren room. All there was was a bed, a sink, and a toilet… Basic, plain utilities. Though the room itself was strange… He went over and touched the wall next to the bed - it was some kind of dusty metal, which he wasn't sure - then realized that he wasn't wearing his gloves. Now that he was paying attention, he wasn't in his old lab coat or pants at _all_ … Instead, he was in ragged-looking orange prison garb. It hung in strangely-shaped strips off of his body, like something had torn it apart.

He looked at his hand as it rested against the wall. Even after all the healing, he could still see the seams Lord Gemini had left during his educational sessions… Sessions that were all Alpha's fault, for not being an attentive enough underling. For not being what Lord Gemini had needed.

Alpha made to brush his surprisingly dirty hand off on his pants. Strangely, he met resistance. He looked down and fought a gasp.

A thorn. A giant, vicious-looking thorn was growing out of his leg.

Now that he was paying more attention, he could feel that the various spots where he'd had the wrongly-healed wounds felt more… Lumpy. He reached back to touch and found more of the thorns had apparently sprouted from his back.

On top of the thorns, he realized that there was something _wrong_ with his chest. It stuck out now. It made him wonder as to what purpose it even served… He was pretty sure that the muscles in the area hadn't really grown at all. The basic underlying structure, the bones, apparently had, though.

Now he wondered what _else_ had gone wrong with him…

He decided to take stock by a thorough examination. As best as he could get, anyway. He felt his feet, his legs, torso, arms, fa-.. _His face._ Misshapen horns… Absolutely nasty-feeling teeth… _And what was wrong with his tongue!?_

...he'd _deserved_ it. Lord Gemini needed him to be better and he hadn't been! He deserved to be mutated more! He'd _betrayed_ his lord by not listening to him! He should've snapped Shego's neck the second he had the chance. If that had happened, then his lord wouldn't be-..

Like a flash, the pieces fell into place.

They'd been captured. They'd been captured by the enemy and it was _all Alpha's fault_.

"Lord Gemini!" Alpha looked around, mind rushing. Where was his lord? Where was _Alpha_? What-..

He finally noticed the door. It looked perfectly smooth; not even a food slot to give food to the prisoners was present.

Alpha went over to the door and began working on it. His vines pounded and grasped at it, trying to get some kind of hold on it, to crumple it up as he'd done to Aviarius' cage.

It dented here and there, but not enough to get a handhold on.

The blue man growled in frustration. Why wasn't this _working_?! Normal metals should've been a breeze for his vines! What was so special about-..

A hissing noise caught his attention. Belatedly, he realized there were vents at the tip-top of the room, so small that he doubted that even _his_ hand would fit through. They were spilling out some kind of gas at an accelerated rate, a yellow tinge filling the room.

Alpha tried to hold his breath, working on the door more, before he simply _couldn't_. A few lungfuls later and he found himself falling to the ground. He struggled to stay conscious, but found himself slowly succumbing to whatever gas had filled the room.

The door opened. He got a small glance at the intruder - a one-eyed brunette woman holding a tray of food who was now examining the door - before passing out.

* * *

" _You want me to_ what _?!"_

" _You heard me, Alpha." Lord Gemini repeated, "I want you to make me an injection collar, to keep you wrangled in."_

 _Alpha started, "But-.. But I would_ never _-.."_

" _There is_ no such thing _as 'never'," the other man snarled. "Anyone can betray anyone at any time! This will be insurance for if you fail me, or try to betray me."_

" _Wouldn't the mind control serums be_ enough _?" the blue man asked, looking fearfully at DNAmy's experimental stock of mutagens. If even DNAmy found them to be too much…_

" _I want to_ punish _you, not_ just _control you…" Gemini said, narrowing his eyes. "I can tell you're scared of those mutagens… So, to keep you in line, I'll use them as a deterrent." He towered over the slouching blue man. "Do you understand?"_

" _...yes, Lord Gemini." Agent Alpha looked away, letting out a sudden nervous giggle. "I understand."_

" _Good. Because we're getting close to the end goal…" Gemini looked at the clock against the wall. Alpha had purposely been avoiding looking at it, the hope that was crushed with every view making him feel like a traitor to his lord. This time, he let himself look._

 _26 hours. It'd been a full day since this entire thing started. Not all of it had been in the time bubble, with Lord Gemini needing to occasionally get food and giving Alpha tests of loyalty. Lately, he'd been failing less, warranting less punishment and more rewards. He'd been allowed to discontinue the mutagens a couple of weeks ago, something that the blue man was intensely joyful about. He'd already lost all of his previous teeth, his skin was a deeper blue, and his eyes burned practically all the time now. Alpha would've hated to see what else would've happened had he stayed connected._

 _And now that joy had been ripped from him. Though…_

 _If he was loyal, if he was true to his lord, there would be no need to worry about the mutagens. They would only be if he failed or misbehaved, right? Which meant he had nothing to worry about!_

 _Then, something occurred to Alpha._

" _Close to the end goal?" This was the first time that Lord Gemini had brought it up himself._

" _Oh yes…" His lord messed around with his mechanical hand, turning one of the lasers on momentarily as if doing an equipment check. "I suppose you'll want to know exactly what purpose you'll be serving…" He chuckled. "It's quite simple, really:_

" _I want you to help me kill Shego and Kim Possible."_

* * *

It was several meals later, and he was still hungry.

Alph-.. Dre-.. _Agent Alpha_ glared at the door. Every time he tried to bust it down, the gas was used. Any time it was time to eat, the gas was used. Frankly, Alpha was surprised that he was conscious _at all_ during the entire ordeal he was facing.

And if they were treating _Alpha_ this badly, who _knew_ what his lord was facing?

Alpha's frustration with the situation led his vines to do something stupid on his behalf.

He soon found the bed was being bent and torn to shreds, the weak metals and cloths failing to hold against the prodigious strength of the vines.

"Hey!" he yelled at them, anger and frustration growing. "I was going to use that!"

Some of the vines stopped and 'looked' at him, while others continued their onslaught.

"Nnnngh…" He tried to call them back into himself again, but found it to be as fruitless as before. He was apparently stuck with the vines as they were. Misbehaving brats!

For some reason, the longer Dre-.. _Alpha he was Agent Alpha_ went without his mind control serum from Lord Gemini, the less control he had over his vines. Did that mean that they had separate minds which _also_ responded to mind control serum? Maybe he should take some on his own if just to _wrangle them in_.

He paused at that thought. That was… Odd. Very odd. When was the last time he really thought like this, without the focus somehow being on pleasing Lord Gemini somehow? Must be another indicator that the serums were wearing off.

Alpha wasn't sure how to feel about that anymore, especially now that the voice that sounded like him was saying things. He couldn't _understand_ what it was saying, but he knew that he wouldn't like it when he could...

* * *

 _Kill Shego and Kim Possible._

 _That was his order. Kill his family. Like it was the easiest thing in the world._

 _It would be hard, harder than his lord seemed to think it would be. Kimberly had evaded death time and again, and Shego was superpowered and stubborn._

 _But how could they hope to handle Lord Gemini? It would be suicide for them, to try and take on his lord._

 _...maybe, just maybe, they might want to join with Lord Gemini? Agent Alpha had brought the idea up with his lord, but was met with derisive laughter. Like the idea had absolutely zero merit._

 _As stupid as it was, Alpha had to try. He_ had _to…_

 _It was definitely not for their sake. Nope. That'd just be_ silly _and_ completely _against everything that his lord wanted. It was definitely all for his lord. With the three of them as Lord Gemini's underlings, there would be no stopping his lord's rise to the world stage._

 _They walked in then. After all that time, having not seen them in months, they came back in like it'd only been a day. Because, for them, it had._

 _He watched them as Lord Gemini caught their attention. Redirected them around so their backs were to Alpha. Described in broad strokes about what they'd been doing in the meantime. Then, the code words._

"But enough about that…"

 _Agent Alpha paused, his vines holding in the air as his eyes softened for a moment. Maybe he could…?_

 _Then, shaking his head, he slammed them down towards his loved ones._

 _He couldn't let Lord Gemini down._

* * *

Drew sat quietly against the wall, staring off into space, tears falling from his eyes.

What had he _done_?


	12. Drew and Shego

Dr Betty Director walked into the debriefing room, papers in hand.

It had been almost a week since the events at the Caribbean island. Gemini was safely ensconced in their most secure cell, the second-most secure clearly not being enough to hold him. Drew Lipsky was occupying another of the cells, the newest one they had forged using Lorwardian metals. A rocket could crash right into it and it wouldn't even leave a dent.

She started as she looked at the initial reports, "I-.."

She was cut off by a fist to her face.

Betty staggered back, the shock of the unexpected punch throwing her off her game momentarily. She dropped her all-important bureaucratic papers. Then, recovering, she realized that it had been Kim Possible to throw the punch and not Shego as she had halfway expected. The redhead looked incensed, a scowl marring her normally unflappable expression. Even with a broken arm Kimberly was still as confident as ever. Around them, agents were pointing their stun watches at the aggressor. Betty sighed as she motioned for them to drop their weapons.

They complied reluctantly.

"I do believe I deserved that," the brunette said, rubbing at her jaw before she bent down to retrieve her papers.

"You're _damn_ right you do!" Kim growled. Next to her, Ron Stoppable stood, clearly torn.

"Ah, KP, you should calm down… I know you're upset, but-.."

"Why didn't you tell us that Gemini had escaped?" the heroine asked, ignoring him and glaring at the director.

Betty knew better than to answer about the embarrassment of him escaping missing an arm and with no help. Instead, she said, "I had expected him to come after me, and only me. That's _always_ been his focus. It was abnormal for him to target anyone else."

"You didn't think he'd seek revenge for destroying his _entire_ base of operations?" Kim snarled. "The fact that he wouldn't be able to recover _at all_ , or at least enough to be a threat to GJ?"

Betty made like she was looking at her papers again, but her mind was racing. When Kimberly put it like _that_ it seemed like a major oversight on her part.

"I assure you, we had not foreseen this course of events," was all she could say in reply.

"That doesn't help us at all."

Time to go on the offense. "And what of Wade Load?"

Kim looked at Betty, confused.

"This wouldn't have happened had our security system not been tampered with," Betty growled with a heat she didn't actually feel.

The redhead's face became impassive. "I don't know what you're implying, but-.."

"Cut the crap, Kimberly," Dr Director said sharply. "We both know that you went into the evidence warehouse. For what purpose we don't know… All the missing equipment was accounted for when we apprehended-.."

" _Were handed_ -.."

" _Apprehended_ ," Betty insisted, "my brother and Drew Lipsky."

Kim's eyebrow rose, just a little. "That doesn't seem like something you need to know."

The brunette outwardly did nothing, but internally felt both frustration and some pride. It seemed that the redhead really was learning.

"Yeah, uh, I still don't know what's going on entirely?" Ron said, raising his hand. "Anyone wanna fill me in?"

"I am going to _debrief you_ on the events that took place, both at Drew Lipsky's residence and in the evidence locker. None of us have been honest with each other, and we need full transparency to fully understand the situation," Betty pointed out, looking at Kim specifically. "Once we have some information, we may be able to help more than what we've managed."

"Oh! Oh!" Ron raised his hand. "I can totally start with the stuff I know! Then you guys can fill in the blanks!"

"And I guess I can tell you some of what I know… The need-to-know stuff," Kim said, eyebrow still minutely raised.

Dr Director nodded, deciding to take what she could get at that point. "Good. We'll need all of you to inform us of what happened, to get the best picture possible." The brunette suddenly looked around, mildly confused as she finally noticed... "...where is Shego?"

* * *

"The good news is that he still responds to his psychiatric drugs well. We had to sneak them into his food..." the Einstein-haired man that Shego'd strong-armed into leading her to Drew said, looking through his notes as they walked by a set of cells which held a few random men. "He is experiencing the same reduced erratic behaviors as when he was still normal."

"The bad news?"

"Well…" The scientist looked away and coughed.

Shego's heart dropped. Expecting the worst, she asked, "Is he going to die?"

He gave her an owlish stare and said, "No, but-.."

"Then whatever it is is fine," she said with a shrug, secretly relieved. If _that_ wasn't the bad news, then it didn't matter so much. Changing the topic, Shego asked, "Is it safe to go see him?"

"I, uhm…" He looked uncomfortable. "He's still the same as he was before."

"You _just_ said that he responded to his meds okay," Shego said, frowning.

"I meant physically," the man said. "He's still a bit of a monstrosity, and he'll-.."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I got a pretty good look at him when he was beating the crap out of me. Is it safe to go see him?" she repeated. "Like, will he rip my head off for the love of his dear 'Lord Gemini' or anything?"

"Oh!" He adjusted his glasses. "Well, no, he shouldn't. The brainwashing serums wore off. He still has the mental scarring and thus some instinctual responses to Gemini's name and presence, but that's only _natural_ from the amount of tor-.."

"Okay, good." Shego hitched a thumb in the direction of the GJ holding cells. "Which one is his?"

The scientist gulped. "Erm, he's in the reinforced containment cell down the hall… On the left…"

"Gotcha." She nearly laughed at the perturbed expression on his face. "Geez, if it's gonna worry you so much, you can shut the door behind me!"

The man reluctantly nodded. "Okay. I'll lead you to his cell myself then." He took the tentative lead, the two of them ignoring the catcalls and other charitably impolite phrases that the other prisoners were yelling out at them. A quick lighting up of a hand with plasma silenced the majority of them.

To Shego's surprise, Drew really _was_ in some kind of self-contained reinforced cell. No bars, just a small separate room made entirely out of metal with ducts connected at the top.

When the scientist opened the door, Shego could see a variety of dents and dings on the inside of the door. Probably from the doc losing his cool and trying to escape. She was glad that the door was solid enough that even his vines couldn't bust it open.

Shego walked in, looking around for her husband.

The door shut behind her with a resounding thud.

She rolled her eyes. She hadn't been _serious_ about locking them both in there. It wasn't like her doc was a rabid animal or anything like that. Sighing and shaking her head, Shego looked around.

The room was strangely dark for a so-called 'containment cell'. She'd thought they would want a brightly-lit room to make sure there was no funny business going on. No accounting for a lack of common sense.

The room was barren save for a toilet, sink, and bed, the latter having been torn to pieces. Belatedly, Shego realized that the room didn't even have a slot to feed a prisoner through. How in the world was someone supposed to _survive_ in here?

Even through the dark it was easy enough to see him. It looked like they'd given him prison garb. _Very badly fitting_ prison garb; the spikes all over his body had torn them to loose shreds that hung off of his body in irregular strips.

He was pressed against the wall, cradling his legs and staring at the ground. Or, at least, he had been. At the door's shutting, he looked up with interest.

Then his face fell.

"Oh. It's you," he noted with a slight lisp before steadfastly looked away.

"Yeah…?" Shego tilted her head, slightly offended. "Who were you _expecting_?"

He muttered something.

"What?"

Drew looked up shamefully. "I was expecting Lord Gemin-.. I mean Lord Gemi-.. _I mean Lord Gem_ -.." He slammed a fist into the wall. "I mean him!"

Oh. So _that's_ what the scientist meant. Hoping for your tormentor to come _was_ pretty twisted…

"I'd keep my distance too if I were you," her doc sighed, looking up at her with doe eyes. "Considering everything…"

She rolled her eyes. Great. He was in one of _those_ moods.

She walked over to sit by him. He looked like he was going to protest, but thought better of it as she slumped to the ground, giving him a defiant glare. She then noticed for the first time that he still had a variety of vines hanging around him. They made room for her, pulling themselves closer to his body and crowding under his legs.

They sat there in silence, neither one really willing to say much. It wasn't a _tense_ silence, but it wasn't very productive either.

So Shego broke it.

"Your mother called."

"Hm?" He tilted an eyebrow, clearly curious. As hoped, the sudden strange topic pulled him out of his pity party. "My mother called?"

"Yeah." She smirked. "Wanted to know why her lil' Drewbie was avoiding her."

"Hmph!" He snorted. "Did you tell her that I was indisposed?"

"Nah…" Shego tried not to laugh as she admitted, "I gave the phone to the sidekick."

"...you did _what_?!" Drew faced Shego, mouth gaped open in horror. Even in the dim light his teeth glinted slightly. Angrily he hissed, " _What were you thinking_?"

"That I'm not your secretary, and that it'd be pretty funny," Shego said, smiling devilishly.

"Nnnnngh…" Drew slapped his forehead. " _Please_ tell me he didn't say anything stupid."

"If you think admitting every single thing he knew like he'd been blasted with your truth ray as nothing stupid, then yeah, nothing stupid was said."

Somehow, his jaw dropped even more. "What." Then, "WHAT?!"

"Oh calm down!" Shego popped his jaw back up with a finger. "She would've found out eventually _anyway_."

"I have _no idea_ what he told her!" Drew complained. "For all I know, he could've told her about me being a villain!"

"That's not true anymore at least," Shego pointed out. "I doubt dear ol' Mama Lipsky will care a tick since you're out of the business."

"I just-.. I can't believe you!" He grunted and curled his fists, several of the flowers around him imitating his efforts. A few even reached around Shego and crushed up a bit more of the bed. Then, quietly grumbling, he scratched at a small thorn sticking out of his neck. "Letting that idiot boy talk with my mother...!"

"Does it hurt?" Shego suddenly asked, staring at the thorn.

He looked at her, dropping his hand. "Does what hurt?"

"The thorns. The vines. _Everything_."

"Oh." He shifted uncomfortably. "I'm mostly itchy. My old skin wasn't _nearly_ this bad. I'm having trouble not scratching…" Drew itched at his arm, where the skin and vines met. " _Especially_ here!"

"...why _are_ you hanging on to these vines?" she asked carefully, eyeing the few that were curling angrily. "Why have them-.."

"I can't get rid of them."

Shego blinked. "What do you mean?"

He growled, "I mean _I can't get rid of them_." Drew glared at the mass of flowers and vines. "I can't make them withdraw into my body, and when I tried pulling them off they just regrew. I'm _stuck_ with them."

"Huh." She shrugged. It could be worse. "Well, I'm sure that they'll go away once you start treatment."

"What?" He looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head.

She continued, "I mean, it isn't like this is hopeless or anything. Just gotta have GJ whip up more anti-muta-.."

"They gave me this with my last meal," Drew suddenly said, tossing a crumpled-up pamphlet at Shego.

"Huh?" Shego picked it up and read it. "'I Was A Mad Scientist's Guinea Pig: Now What?'?" She quirked an eyebrow at him. "What _is_ this?"

" _Read it_."

Her eyebrow didn't move as she opened it up. As she read the contents, her eyebrows came together as her frown deepened. Inside, it described all the ways that victim of permanent alterations to their genetic code and physical appearance could live a happy, full life even with their abnormalities.

 _Now_ she got it. What a lousy way to deliver the news.

"And they couldn't have had an actual conversation with you _why_?" she asked, glaring at where she knew there was a camera.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because I'm an inhuman abomination that they're afraid to anger?" Drew answered sarcastically.

Shego brushed the comment off and pointed out, "GJ isn't the only game in town. There're other people we can call up for help with this."

"Like who? Amy Hall?" He sneered, "Yes, because the woman whose mutagens _did this to me_ would _really_ be willing to help! I'm sure she'd rather _run the other way_ once she sees me!"

Shego stared at him. "Will you stop feeling sorry for yourself about this?"

He snorted, "No!" and pushed his lip out in frustration. "You don't even know what I've _been through,_ or what I had been planning to do... Who're _you_ to judge _me_ for feeling sorry for myself?!"

"I _do_ know that you were stuck under the effects of that mind control stuff. You know, that stuff that _I_ got stuck under too during your whole rapping phase?" Shego crossed her arms. "You think I don't know what it's like to not be in control of yourself, to end up screaming in your own head as your body does whatever someone else tells it to?"

" _I_ was tortured!"

"And I'm not judging you for that. What I _am_ judging you for-.." she waved at him, from head to foot "..-is the pity party about _this_. The pity party when you're _still alive_ and _free_ again. Just because you're not like you were before doesn't mean that you should sulk about it."

Drew glared and sputtered at her for a good few seconds before he grumbled, "Some help _you_ are!" and resumed looking away from her.

Shego looked at him then. _Really_ looked at him.

Now that he'd had the apparent opportunity to shower and everything, his hair was, for the most part, back to normal. There were a few stray vines which had apparently decided to grow out of his scalp, but otherwise he was back to his fauxhawk and basic cut.

His eyes still looked horribly bloodshot. All red where there should've been white. Shego was going to assume that, at this point, it was permanent.

His teeth. They were, for lack of a better word, _scary_. No smile from him would ever be quite the same. The tight-fitting needle-like teeth which surrounded the blunter but still rather sharp-looking front fangs made her think of an anglerfish on steroids.

The thorns which now littered his body were clearly making him uncomfortable, in more than one way. They scraped against the metal wall and kept him from fully leaning back, instead reducing him to a slight hunch. The horns weren't much better, the abnormal shape of them making him look even more unbalanced and asymmetrical than he already was.

The vines were, for the most part, calmly tucked under and around him. A handful seemed to be unconsciously wavering about, a few of them 'looking' at Shego with what was probably the plant equivalent of interest.

His chest was _huge_. Midas had nothing, _nothing_ on him anymore. The barrel-chest looked almost impossible, like some kind of weird implant.

His skin wasn't such a shocker. It was the contrast of his eyes, his teeth, his _everything else_ that made it stick out so much.

He, probably sensing her intense gaze, looked up at her, lips pressed together and brow drooped.

...even as a spiky, mutated, ragged old blue man he was still adorable when he pouted.

She found herself needing to touch him. So, with that in mind, she did the only logical thing: climbed into his lap.

"What the-..?!" Drew squawked, tensing up. She shushed him.

It was a _little_ hard with the thorn she'd accidentally created on his leg blocking her slightly, but with some adjusting she became comfortable enough.

"Shego, what are you-.."

"I want kissy face," she said simply, wrapping her arms around his neck. She ignored the slight tinge of pain as her wrist grazed the side of a thorn.

"Shego, have you _lost your mind_?" Drew asked, trying to pull back from her slightly. As his spikes were already as close to the wall as they'd allow him to be, it didn't work very well.

"I want kissy face," Shego repeated, nuzzling the side of his face.

"I can't-.. Why?!" He sounded shocked.

She pulled back to look him in the eye. His mouth was agape, eyes scrunched in worry. Once again, she was reminded of an anglerfish, one that she was certain she was getting drawn in by.

Drew started, "Shego, I'm not even _huma-_.."

"Shh." She shut his mouth with a finger. "You could be a _banana_ for all I care." Shego pressed her forehead into his, feeling the horns press into it and not caring in the slightest. "As long as you're my doc, I'm fine with whatever."

He gaped. "But, but what about what I've _done-.."_

" _I. Don't. Care."_ She forced him to look her in the eyes. "Are you Drew again?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, erm, for the most part, yes…"

"So what does it matter what Agent Alpha did? How does that affect _us_ at all?"

He was quiet for a long while. Then, slowly, his arms wrapped around her.

"I, uhm…" Drew sounded both embarrassed and hopeful as he tentatively said, vines beginning to curl themselves on and around Shego, "...I guess we can try, erm, kissy face… Just, mind the teeth."

Shego smirked, then cupped his face as she directed his lips to hers...

* * *

 **A/N** **:** Been trying pretty hard to balance out the heavy stuff with some light stuff, and not just sweep everything under a rug like it's nothing... Hoping I'm doing a decent job of it.

Strangely, I feel like this chapter is rather weak compared to others. Any idea what's up with that, readers?


	13. Kim and GJ

_Kim cradled her broken arm as she walked over to her fiance. "Ron, I'm_ so _glad-.." She quickly found herself in a gentle hug from Ron, who was now shaking a little bit._

" _KP, I don't know what's going on, but I know that you guys came pretty close to biting it…" Ron said. "I can't believe I wasn't here-.."_

" _Calm down, Ron," Kim said, deciding to bite the obvious building problem in the bud. "You can't be around me 24/7, and this was_ definitely _not a normal sitch."_

 _Ron started, expression torn, "But KP-.."_

" _You were here_ when it mattered _," she assured him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "And it looks like you didn't get away unscathed…" Kim winced as she looked at the wound on his side. "That looks pretty vicious…"_

" _Yeah…" Ron took a half-step back and tentatively poked the hole. "Y'know, it hurts less than I'd expect."_

" _Probably the adrenaline…" Shego noted. "_ Trust _me, you'll be feeling that in_ no time _."_

" _Hey!" they heard Rufus squeak from their feet. He was holding a roll of gauze and some disinfectant spray. Where he'd gotten that Kim had_ no idea _, but the fact that it was probably just sitting out unsettled her some._

" _We should bring GJ in on this…" Kim trailed off as her mother took the supplies from Rufus and began to really examine Ron's injury._

" _WHAT?!" Shego gaped at the redhead. "You_ do _realize that it means that Gemini escaped from_ under Betts' nose, _right? That this is_ her _fault, right?!" The green woman was growing more incensed the more she talked. "_ Look at him _!" She waved an arm at her husband, who was still sprawled out on his stomach. "Look at what Gemini did to him! And you want to call them back in_ why _?"_

" _They should be able to help fix him again. And it isn't like we don't need medical attention," Kim pointed out as she called Wade up._

" _They should be_ tried by law _for their_ incompetence _!" Shego growled, building up steam as she tended to Ron's wound._

 _Kim tried to ignore her mother's ranting now. Being angry right now wouldn't help anything. They should save that for later. Gemini and Drew wouldn't be out for too long, and she wasn't sure she could handle another fight like that. She activated her watch and said, "Wade?"_

 _Wade's face popped up on screen. "What's up, Kim?" He paused as he looked at her. "What happened? You look like you were in a fight!"_

"Gemini _happened." Kim said with a slight growl. "He escaped from GJ custody and came for us."_

" _Yikes." Her heavyset friend winced. "I'm guessing you want to call Global Justice up?_

" _Please and thank you." She paused, a thought hitting her as Wade typed away. "Wade, why didn't you_ warn _us about Gemini escaping?" Kim said, hurt leaking into her voice._

 _He looked surprised for a moment, then extraordinarily guilty. "I'm sorry, Kim. I-.. I didn't even_ hear _about it! I was so focused on trying to fix their messed-up database, and then Dr Director removed me from their systems-.."_

" _She fired you?" Kim tilted her head. "Why?"_

" _That's the thing: I have no idea! She just said that it 'wasn't working out'..."_

" _Hmph." The redhead made a face. There was no way it was as simple as 'not working out'. It was another thing on the long list of questions that Kim was building that she would have to ask Dr Director when she had the chance._

 _She looked at her father and sighed, stomach knotting..._

* * *

"...and I went 'BAM!' with the vines and knocked him out!" Ron said triumphantly.

"Fascinating…" Betty muttered, writing every detail down. At least, that's what Kim was assuming she was doing. Looking up, the brunette asked, "And you call this the 'mystical monkey power'?"

"Nono, it's Mystical Monkey Power," he corrected. "Gotta have the right emphasis!"

"Noted." Betty looked up from her papers. "Kimberly, did you have anything to add to the description of events he witnessed?"

The redhead blinked as she tried to take in all of what Ron had said. "Ron…?"

"Hm?" The blond looked over at his fiancee. "What's up, KP?"

Kim took a quick look at Betty, then said, "Nothing…" She made a mental note to talk with Ron after all of this, when they were away from prying ears and eyes. She was glad that he only covered what had happened at the lair earlier and not everything _else_ that had happened before it. Maybe the same thoughts had occurred to him as they had to her?

"Now then…" Dr Director turned to Kim. "It's time for you to tell us what has been going on." She looked through a few more of her notes. "It seems that you've been spending an extraordinary amount of time at Drew and Shego's home…" The brunette looked up at Kim with a raised eyebrow. "Care to explain?"

"No, I don't."

Betty frowned. "Kimberly-.."

"That isn't relevant for what you _need_ to know," the redhead said, letting her own eyebrow rise minutely to get the point across. "You just need to know about Gemini and all that, right?"

The brunette's face changed almost imperceptibly, but Kim could see how much her obstinance was annoying the director.

"Kimberly, if we have the _full picture_ -.."

"How would that help you treat Drew? Or ensure that Gemini doesn't escape again? In fact, what Ron has told you is _considerably_ generous of us..."

Kim suddenly understood exactly how Shego must have felt before, at the lair. The emotion Kim had loosened earlier with the punch was _nothing_ compared to the burning resentment that was in her gut now. It was _one_ thing for Gemini to have escaped from them before, when his operation was still in order. It was an _entirely different beast_ that he'd escaped from GJ custody with absolutely no resources whatsoever _and_ with a grudge against someone other than Betty.

Kim was no stranger to the revolving door that was supervillain prison. It was frustrating, but it was life. But when it came to someone like Gemini, a _truly_ dangerous individual, she had hoped that things would've been taken a _little_ more seriously.

Apparently not.

"Kimberly," Dr Director started, "we need to know Gemini's _motives_ for going after Drew so harshly!"

Kim said calmly, "I think that you underestimate your brother's capacity to hate. Or creatively torture people…" She looked Dr Director. "After all, he went after Drew like this before, didn't he? Remember Project Phoenix?"

Dr Director narrowed her eye, just a little. "That was _different_. Drew was collateral damage in the fight between GJ and WEE. _This_ was a focused attack _meant_ to hurt as much as possible…"

"So the torture that Drew endured during the first go around he had with Gemini counts for nothing?" Kim leaned forward in her seat. "Tell me, _Betty_ , how much 'collateral damage' has there been between GJ and WEE?"

The brunette fumed but said nothing.

"I think that we _both_ know how things will end up…" Kim gave a careless shrug. "We give you the information you _need_ , and you'll do what you can to reverse the damage that's _all your fault_."

"We don't _have_ to help at all," Dr Director pointed out hotly. "It would be a _favor_ done by us, for _you_. The only favor we want in return is _information_. After all..." Betty relaxed, just a little. "...as Gemini's underling, Drew Lipsky will need to be held for public safety concerns..."

Kim narrowed her eyes. So, that's how this was going to play out? She wanted to stomp out right then… But if Dr Director wanted to do it like that…

"As far as most people know, Gemini hasn't even escaped," Kim said with the same careless tone she'd had before. "How do you think it would sound if not only did Gemini escape with _nothing_ to help him, but he got his hands on a _world-saving hero_ and did what he did? It's not like you can even _charge_ Drew with something..."

"We don't _need_ to charge him with _anything_. We're an independent organization-.."

"..-who can pick-and-choose to lock up whoever they want. Gotcha," Ron threw in. Kim gave him a quick smile.

"Drew is a safety risk," Betty insisted as the door behind her opened and admitted two people. "He's been programmed by my brother to do goodness-knows-what to who-knows-what. We can't _trust_ that he's safe. Thus, he needs to be locked up."

"Wouldn't treating him be a priority then? As a public safety concern," Kim said.

"You're wasting your breath, Princess."

"Ah! Shego…" Betty turned around in her chair to greet Kim's mother. "I see that you found your way to the debriefing room finally…"

"Yeah, it's pretty twisty where your bathroom is," Shego said, looking at her nails. Kim noticed some strange scratches on her neck, but decided not to ask about it at the moment. "You should really get a map or something for it."

"Indeed." Dr Director's eye narrowed, but she chose to say nothing.

"Anyway, as I was saying, GJ can't help." Shego tossed a pamphlet at Kim. "Looky at what they gave Drew."

"Hm?" Kim only needed to take a quick glance at it to know exactly what it was. Looking up at Betty, she asked, "So, when were you going to mention this to us?"

"After the debriefing," the director admitted. "Once we were all on the same page."

"You said that you could-.."

"I stated that with proper information we _may_ be able to help more than we have been able to," Betty corrected. She again turned to Shego and said, "The bathroom, hm?"

"Hey, it's not _my_ fault that the bathroom I found happened to have my doc in it," Shego replied with a shrug.

"And _why_ wasn't I informed that there was an intruder in Drew Lipsky's cell?" the brunette asked the agent that had walked in with Shego.

He looked at the rest of the agents who all had their eyebrows raised. The agent coughed and said, "Well, she had an escort there… Clearly if she had an escort, she was allowed to go there without needing special clearance… Right?"

The rest of the agents nodded while Dr Director rubbed her head in frustration.

"Clearly," Betty ground out. She dismissed the man, who saluted and walked out the door.

"So, Betts," Shego said, waltzing over and taking the chair next to Kim, "I'm guessing that Kimmie's not making things easy on you?"

"I simply don't understand why you're so resistant to us knowing what has been going on," Dr Director stated.

"Because it's none of your business!" Shego and Kim both said at the same time.

Betty looked between the two women. Then she looked at Ron.

"You're not getting anything out of me!" Ron said, crossing his arms. "If KP doesn't want you to know, you don't need to know!"

"Yeah!" Rufus said, making as if zipping his mouth shut.

"...fine then." She stood up from the table. "I do believe this debriefing is over."

"And Drew…?" Shego raised her eyebrow.

"He is still a public danger."

"Don't give me that!" the green woman snarled. "I _just_ spent some time hanging out with the doc. He's well enough to not _need_ locked up!"

Dr Director's eye narrowed. "And if he were to go on a public rampage, who would be to blame?"

"You could release him to our care?" Kim suggested. "We can take him to one of their remote lairs to start a rehab process. I'm willing to bet DNAmy would be happy to help us out with this!"

"Yeah, I wouldn't bank on it…" Shego muttered.

The redhead decided to ignore what her mother said. Because if DNAmy, arguably one of the best geneticists in the world, wasn't willing to help, then who could they ask? Kim knew some scientists who owed her favors, but she would bet that this kind of situation would be a bit over their heads.

Dr Director looked between Kim, Ron, and Shego, before sighing and motioning at an agent in the corner. "Please prepare Drew Lipsky's release."

"Yes ma'am!" The woman saluted, then ran out of the room, slamming the door shut harder than necessary.

"I'm not doing this for you," Betty noted with a tinge of bitterness in her tone. "That new cell is a prototype for a possible new containment system for villains of the highest order. Gemini's occupying another one of them. The fact that Drew Lipsky couldn't break out by force is heartening. We're hoping to make a new generation of imprisonment technology, so our cardboard prison problem is one of the past."

"Yeah, uh, question…" Ron scratched his head. "Who would make a prison out of cardboard?"

"It's… A turn of phrase..." Dr Director said with mild confusion. "It means that our prisons are easy to escape."

"Ohhhh. Okay. That makes sense," the blond said with a nod.

"Anyway…" Betty coughed. "We need the cell to see if we can contain a variety of villains. Brute force seems to be out, so that's one measure. We plan on cycling villains in and out of these prototype cells, to see how many manage to escape. We're hoping to drop the number of escapes down to almost nothing…"

"So you'll want the room for seeing if some slippery guy can escape?" Ron asked. "What, you mean like Falsetto Jones?"

"Or someone like him, yes," the director confirmed. "We want to-.."

"Ma'am!" The male agent from earlier ran back into the room. "We seem to have a problem in your brother's cell!"

"What?!" the brunette dropped her papers on the table and cried, "Bring up footage from cell 37927!"

"Roger that!" the agent replied, running over to the wall and pressing a few buttons on a nearby console.

On the screen appeared Gemini and a short redheaded woman with a beehive hairdo and a flower-patterned dress. They were in a cell that looked to be completely locked off from the world, missing even bars, instead having a solid metal door and no windows. The woman was beating on Gemini with a handbag, while Gemini, strangely, was cowering away from her.

"Who _is_ that?" Dr Director asked, peering closely at the screen.

"Can we zoom and enhance the video to get a better look?" Ron suggested.

Dr Director stared at him. "You do realize that doesn't actually work, right? That it's a television show gimmick?"

"But Wade does it all the time!"

"There's no need," Kim said, flushing red. Shego was trying hard not to bust out laughing.

"Oh?" The brunette looked between the two of them. She repeated, "Who is that, then?"

" _Drew's mother_ ," Shego said, losing the fight with herself and busting out an evil laugh.

Betty paused, her brow creasing. "...ah."

* * *

 **A/N:** I feel a lot better about this chapter. I dunno, something about Ron made it 100 times more fun to write.


	14. Mama Lipsky

"So then, Betts, what was that about the 'new generation of imprisonment technology'?" the green woman asked with some mirth as the group made their way towards the containment cells.

"I can't believe this has happened," Betty muttered, hands twisting angrily behind her back. "The guards _alone_ should've been enough to at least _deter_ someone from the general public. And yet…!"

"Yeah, Doctor D's mother is magical like that. She pulled the same thing on me and Doc a few years ago," Shego noted. "I bet she probably got the cells wrong looking for Drew and stumbled onto Gemini."

"At least _something_ managed to stop her from her goal," Dr Director growled sardonically.

" _Trust_ us…" Kim said, shaking her head, "Mama Lipsky goes where she _wants_ to go..." She thought for a second. "As long as she has the transport, anyway…"

"Is she a mad scientist at all?" the brunette inquired, eyebrow raised in interest even through her obvious frustration with the situation.

"No," Shego answered. "Just a stubborn worried mother."

"Sometimes that can be dangerous all on its own," Kim commented seriously. She knew her _own_ mothers wouldn't hesitate to do whatever it took to keep her safe.

She hadn't given much thought to her grandmother since that visit a few months ago. Kim secretly still held a grudge against her for her willing complicity in keeping Drew in the dark about having a family. As mean-spirited as it seemed, she felt like if he'd had something like that to latch on to, he wouldn't have turned to villainy.

"Why do you suppose she's smacking Gemini around with her handbag?" Ron asked, scratching his head. "I mean, it's not like she knows anything about him, is it?"

"I guess we'll find out…" Betty said, nodding her head towards a large self-contained cell with vents attached to the top.

Then, a thought occurred to Kim. They were going to meet her overly talkative grandmother, whom hadn't seen either her daughter-in-law or granddaughter in months, in front of a woman who they were trying to keep their familial secret from.

Suddenly Kim realized just _how bad of an idea_ it was for her to be there.

"Well, Ron, I guess it's about time for us to go!" she said, making like she was checking her watch and motioning back from where they'd come.

"Aren't you curious about what's going on?" Dr Director asked, turning to the redhead. "I'm fine with you being here for her questioning."

"Shego can fill me in later," Kim replied. "I just remembered about a meeting I need to be at in a half-hour."

Betty watched her for a few moments, clearly judging her intent as the guards around the cell began fussing with the door. "...you're sure you can't spare a few minutes for this?"

Ron gave her a look too. "What're you talking about, KP? Didn't you have the day off for-.."

"It slipped my mind until now." The redhead tried not to sweat as she realized that Dr Director sensed something was off. "Remember Ron? The cheer competition coming up in a couple of weeks?"

"I kinda remember you mentioning it before…" Shego said, giving Kim a nicely-concealed confused glance.

"Keep that crazy woman _away from me_!" the voice of Gemini echoed out off the cell.

"So, yeah. Gotta jet!" The redhead grabbed Ron and turned around.

"OH MY GOODNESS!"

Kim cringed.

She was about to start speed-walking the other way when she found herself in an iron grip.

"I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN FOREVER!" Kim's vertebrae groaned in protest at the intense hug.

"Nice… To see… You too…" she choked out, desperately hoping that the woman would ease up before a rib broke and punctured something.

"Mama Lipsky, you _might_ want to let go before you kill her via suffocation…" Shego snarked.

"Oh dear!" She let Kim go, to the relief of the redhead's lungs. "I'm sorry. I'm just _so excited to see you_ …!" Mama Lipsky fussed at Kim's shirt, which had gotten scrunched up from the hug. She then smacked at Kim's arm with her handbag. "Why haven't you come to visit me!?"

"I've been, uhm, busy… Busy doing… Hero stuff…" She was trying to not turn red as her paternal side's fluster at the strongarm of Mama Lipsky reared its ugly head.

"Same for you!" Mama Lipsky swatted Shego next.

"Yea-.. No. Still haven't forgiven you," Shego said, clearly fighting a snarl.

"Forgiven her for…?" Betty butted in after a few moments of Mama Lipsky gaping at Shego with betrayal and Shego glaring right back.

"Nothing," Kim said quickly.

"Nothing, or none of my business?" It was clear the director was catching on.

" _Nothing_ ," Kim insisted. She turned to her grandmother and said, "It was nice seeing you, but I really have to be going…"

"So soon?" The old woman pouted.

"KP has a practice thingy to go to," Ron said, catching on. "If we stick around too much longer, she'll be late."

"Well… Okay. BUT!" Mama Lipsky wagged a finger at the other redhead. "You'd better come visit me soon!"

"Will d-.. Yeah." Kim hooked her arm in Ron's and began speed walking down the hallway.

Just as she walked through the door at the end, she heard Mama Lipsky say to the director, pride shining in every word, "She's my _favorite_ granddaughter."

Even to the best of her ability, Kim couldn't hide the wince. She turned to gauge Betty's reaction.

"...really. Granddaughter?" Dr Director looked between Mama Lipsky and Kim, her eye narrowing in thought.

"She thinks of _every_ kid as a grandkid," Shego said with an eye roll.

Mama Lipsky frowned. "No I don't!"

"Yes, you do," the green woman insisted. "Also, you're demented."

"I AM _NOT_!" The other redhead was now clearly incensed. "How _dare_ you! I can't believe my baby's involved with such a _nasty_ woman!"

"You're a piece of work yourself, lady," Shego replied, looking at her nails.

"Hmph!" Mama Lipsky turned her back to the black-haired woman and began tapping her foot.

"Anyway, we've gotta get going…" Kim hurried out the door, intent on not turning back around to face the continued scrutiny of the director.

"Laters!" Ron called behind him, shutting the door.

* * *

Dr Director watched the door shut with interest. It was clear that there was some kind of truth to the matter. Kimberly's reaction to the 'granddaughter' comment combined with Shego's attempt to redirect attention only made it more obvious to her. It seemed rather straightforward. But...

It was something to mull over later.

Turning to the older woman, she asked, "Mrs. Lipsky?"

"Please, Betty, call me 'Mama'," the older woman requested as she scuttled over to where the director was standing. "That's what I want _everyone_ to call me!"

"Very well." She could see where Shego's comment about her calling all kids 'grandkids' came from. She didn't believe it for a second, though. Shaking her head minutely, Betty asked, trying to urge the woman in the direction of the debriefing room, "So, Mama Lipsky, please tell me… How did you find your way to Gemini's cell?"

"And why were you beaning him with your handbag?" Shego asked, an eyebrow tilted curiously.

"Gemini?" Mama peered at Betty owlishly, not moving a step, before snapping her finger. "Oh! You mean _Sheldon_. Those are easy enough to answer!" Mama Lipsky tittered, "And here I thought I was going to be questioned for some kind of nasty deed by you two…"

"Uh-huh." Shego shared an amused glance with Dr Director.

Then, a lightbulb went off in Betty's head. The director asked the older woman, "...how did you know my name?"

"Hm?" Mama Lipsky looked up at her.

"How did you know my name?" Betty repeated, trying to keep her paranoia from showing. This woman… She couldn't be normal. She simply _couldn't_. Knowing her name, knowing _Sheldon's_ name, sneaking into a top-secret facility and making it all the way into the most secure cell in said facility…

"Ethel, of course!" Mama Lipsky nudged Shego's side and chuckled, "She's got _terrible_ luck with bingo…"

Ethel…? The name rang a bell, but who it was…

Betty decided to just ask. "Who's Ethel?"

Mama Lipsky gasped. "What?! What kind of child _are_ you, to forget your _own mother's name_!"

Oh. _That's_ why it was familiar.

"Does Drew know _yours_?" Shego asked the older woman.

The redhead blinked a few times. "No. Why?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "No particular reason."

"Anyway, deary," Mama Lipsky said, a pout on her lips, "Ethel is _very_ proud of her dear twin children…" Her eyes narrowed. "But that _brother_ of yours, bullying and hurting my dear Drewbie! There was a boy, the one you put me on with…" She waved at Shego. "He told me all about it!"

Betty narrowed her own eye at Shego.

For probably the first time ever, the green woman's expression was one of cringing chagrin. "Yeah, I remember…"

"I originally came to find my Drewbie. I figured he would be in the safest place available, to keep him away from that _madman_ ," Mama Lipsky continued explaining. "But imagine my surprise when I found Sheldon instead! He looks _just_ like the picture that Ethel has in her locket…"

"Indeed he does," Dr Director agreed, knowing exactly which picture it was. Even in a mall photobooth with his mom he couldn't get the sneering scowl off of his face. It was no exaggeration, only fact, that Betty's picture was far better.

"So I decided to show him who's boss!" she finished with finality.

"You definitely did that," Shego said with a snort of laughter. Covering it with a cough, she noted, "Just seems a little weird to me that he didn't, y'know, try to smack you back or anything."

"He _knew_ better," Mama Lipsky said as if it explained everything.

"...and?" The green woman's patience was clearly running out.

"He tried something funny when I first got in there," she explained a little better. "But that boy sure learned what an expert 4 black belt in Krav Maga feels like when push comes to shove!"

"Uh-huh…" Betty's eyebrow tilted at that and she took a quick look at Shego. The green woman's expression barely changed, with little to no surprise on her face. Maybe Shego knew more about this woman than she was letting on…

"So you were beating on him for what he did to Drew?" Shego asked, trying to connect the dots.

"What kind of mother would I be if I didn't?"

"Do you even _know_ what happened to Drew?" Betty skeptically queried. She found it hard to believe that someone could be oblivious enough to tell a mother about the horrific torture and mutations that their child went through.

"All I know is that my poor Drewbie needed help and no one was there for him…" Mama Lipsky said, a waver in her voice. Her face became stern as she growled, "I won't let that happen again! Sea be damned, I'll find a way to be with my little boy!"

"Crap…" Shego muttered quietly to herself.

Not quietly enough.

Giving her the evil eye, Mama Lipsky said, "And what's so bad about that?"

"Maybe it's the fact that we're _still_ dealing with-.." her eyes darted to the director for a moment "..-the fact that you're a bad mom."

The older woman gaped. "I'M a bad mom?!"

"Did I stutter?" Shego began looking at her nails. "Keeping important things secret…"

Interesting. Shego was clearly dodging around what, exactly, were the secrets. The irony was not lost on Betty.

"I may have let my baby down before, but I'll sure as _hell_ make up for it now!" Mama Lipsky was clearly getting worked up. "I'll find him and make sure he's safe…" She glared at everyone present, including the two guards that she had managed to browbeat into letting her into Gemini's cell when she first got there. "No one had better get in my way!"

"...follow me." Betty motioned for the older woman to fall in behind her. Mama Lipsky nodded and fell in line behind the director.

A few minutes later and they were across the complex at the second containment cell.

"I'll allow 5 minutes for now. He'll be released soon into Shego's care, so after that you'll have to discuss with her on when and if you can visit him." She opened the cell herself. Betty decided it was best to get on this woman's good side. She didn't want to earn the wrath of her, and, quite possibly, her own mother in turn. The brunette didn't believe for a second that this wouldn't get back to her mom. Mama Lipsky clearly had a rather large mouth.

"Good!" Mama Lipsky beamed. She brazenly walked into Drew Lipsky's cell, as if there wasn't a chance of him snapping and possibly injuring her.

From the interior came a squeak of, "M-Mother!?"

Then…

"WHAT DID THAT ANIMAL _DO_ TO YOU?!"

Betty sighed, now glad that she'd ordered Drew Lipsky's release. There would've been hell to pay for certain if the older woman had found out about her 'baby' being in continued custody. It was a shame that Drew would probably be like he was for life, but sometimes that's how it went.

She turned and said, "I suppose now we'll have to-.." The director cut herself off when she found that she was alone.

...where did Shego go?

* * *

 **A/N:** This chapter was haaaaaard to write... Mama Lipsky is very hard to capture. Hopefully I did a decent enough job of it.


	15. Fustercluck

This couldn't be happening. Dear goodness, this couldn't be right. He must be hallucinating. He _must_ be. There was _no way_ she was here…!

"Drewbie!" His mother scuttled over to where he was sitting, face crinkled in worry as she repeated, "What _happened_ to you?!"

"I, erm…" What else _could_ he do but lie his butt off? "I was, uhm…" Suddenly, an idea. "Cosplaying!"

"Cosplaying?" his mother asked skeptically, eyebrow tilted in confusion.

"Yes! Cosplaying!" He built up steam as he said, "These are all props! Fake! Yes! I'm just, erm, _dressed up_ like a monstrosity! For my radio show! I'm trying to get in touch with-.."

"Drew, stop it." His mother began tapping her foot, arms crossing in consternation. "I know there's something _wrong_ with you. That you're sick, and that _awful man_ is to blame. The nice boy that I talked with told me as much!"

Drew's eyes narrowed as he remembered what Shego said. _The buffoon_. Of _course_ he had to ruin it for him!

"Don't worry, baby…" His mother walked up to him and gave him a big hug, being mindful of the various thorns sticking out of his body. "Mama loves you, no matter how you look…"

He paused for a moment, then returned the hug with his arms and a few vines. "...I love you too, Mother." And he meant it. Even with her betrayal in regards to his family, he still loved her.

"I just wish we hadn't had our little _tiff_ ," she said, standing back up. Drew frowned. She made it sound like they'd argued about a television show or something!

"Mother, it's more than a ' _little tiff_ '," Drew couldn't help but to growl as he scratched at a small thorn on his neck. "You _purposely_ didn't tell me something very important! That I possibly _had a family_! Don't you think that's something _worth talking about_?"

"I didn't think that revisiting it was a good idea…" Mama sighed. "I'm sorry, Drewbie. I didn't mean to upset you, or keep you from your family… I was doing what I thought was right. I didn't think that she was being honest, especially after I found you like you were... But I was wrong."

Drew blinked. How often was it that his mother apologized like that? Surprised, he could do nothing but sputter, "I, uhm, accept your apology?"

His mother beamed and said, "Good!" She brushed at her dress and excitedly mentioned, "You'll be released from this dingy room soon! They told me so." She smiled wide. "We can all go home and have some _nice_ cheesecake or something while we try to talk about what happened."

"Released?" Was _that_ why the door was still open? Drew was more than a little surprised at that. He wasn't sure if it was trust in his ability to bounce back or what, but overall he didn't care. As long as he _wasn't there_ he would be happy.

Then, a thought occurred to him.

"What about Lord Gemini?" he asked, trying not to let his eagerness show through.

He'd been ashamed earlier to say his name in front of Shego, but he'd also been ashamed at how he acted under the mind control. It was easier to say it in front of his mother, like it was some kind of dirty secret that he didn't want Shego to know. He _knew_ Shego would've overreacted if she knew what was going on in his mind. But he was in control again! It didn't matter what he said or thought as long as he was in control...

"Hm?" His mother stood back up and looked at him owlishly. Then, she snapped her finger. "Right! Sheldon! Gemini, that's what Betty and Shego called him…"

His heart leaped into his throat. He sat at attention, his entire focus on his mother now.

"He's such a nasty person, almost as bad as your girlfriend!"

" _Wife_." He wouldn't let _anyone_ , even his mother, disrespect his marriage. ...save for Lord Gemini. Probably. It didn't matter that he didn't remember the marriage taking place. He'd made the vows, and he sure as hell would keep them!

" _I_ find it hard to believe that you got married _without me_!" She growled, "She must have tricked you or something."

"Yeah, yeah, tricked me, whatever." He scooted forward a little. " _Tell me about Lord Gemini_."

"He's all locked up in a bad place like this, across the way…" Mama Lipsky snorted. " _Why_ they put you in here I have no idea! This is for _bad men_ , and you aren't a bad man at all, are you, Drewbie?"

Drew cringed. " _No_ , Mother, I'm not!" Hesitantly, he asked, "How is he doing?"

"He's definitely regretting what he did to you, dearie!" Mama chortled. "I beat him up real good for you!" His mother tutted, brushing at his ragged shirt. "You won't have to worry about that _bad man_ hurting you ever again!"

Alpha felt the world fall away at those words.

 _Lord Gemini_...

* * *

The two guards for Gemini's cell laid in a pile next to the door. Shego had easily knocked them out, them being none the wiser about her breaking away from Betty's little pow-wow with Mama Lipsky. She'd already gotten to see Drew, and he was going to be released soon to her care. She wasn't worried about him.

There was still business to take care of, though…

She opened up Gemini's cell and waltzed in like she owned the place.

The man himself was sitting on his bed, cradling his right arm. At Shego's entrance, he tensed up, but relaxed as soon as he saw her.

"Ah… Look at who it is." A confident smile came to his face. "Come to seek retribution, I take it?"

"Naturally," Shego said with a careless shrug. She still wasn't sure quite what she wanted to do to him… All she knew was that it had to _hurt_ , and leave a lasting mark. Something that he wouldn't forget.

"I half-expected it to be that paragon of virtue, Kim Possible. After all…" he chuckled "...I _did_ destroy the mind and spirit of her father… And it would have been _deliciously perfect_ if I had managed to corrupt her as well, simply by doing what comes naturally to me."

"He isn't as 'destroyed' as you seem to think he is," Shego challenged. "Doc's resilient. He bounced back _pretty_ easy." She examined her nails. "Looks like you're little attempt to mess him up failed, completely and utterly."

"Shouldn't that make you worry?" Gemini asked with an amused lilt to his voice.

"Hm?" The green woman eyed him.

"The fact that he seems to have bounced back almost instantly from _months_ of torture and work by yours truly? Doesn't that seem a bit _odd_ to you?"

Shego's expression faltered for a moment. Months?

Apparently it was enough of a clue for the one-eyed villain. He laughed cruelly as he said, "You didn't know, did you? I suppose my dear little sister failed to mention that I took a temporal distorter, hm?"

She didn't know what that was, but she was certain that he wasn't lying. Drew was tormented for _months_ by Gemini? Shego hadn't really thought about the mutations and conditioning that went into it, but now that he mentioned it it didn't seem like something that would've been an overnight sort of thing. Especially with how stubborn her doc could be sometimes…

"Yes, it was quite a while that I worked on him… He lasted for a decent amount of time from the first round of torture, really…" Gemini chuckled. "Three days of flaying _fun_. I'm sure his hands will _never_ forget the time we had…" He said, a sneering smile on his face, "Nor will _he_ …" A full-on belly laugh erupted from him as he said, tears gathering in his eyes. "You should have _seen_ his face when he realized we were in a time bubble! When he realized he was holding on for _nothing_! Oh goodness, it's something I'll treasure for _forever_ …!"

Shego felt herself starting to lose her temper at the very _idea_ that he was presenting to her, and the reactions he was displaying to all of it. "You… _You_ …"

A smirk sat on his face as he smugly said, "He was saying anything and everything to try and keep from paying attention to our little… _Project._ " Gemini smiled wide then as he asked, "Tell me, do you suppose he was trying to tell me what I wanted to hear, or if he really was just trying to distract himself? Because he let loose some rather _personal_ information…

"He told me about you wanting to be a psychologist," Gemini sneered suddenly.

" _Child_ psychologist," Shego sneered right back, flames starting to lick at her fingertips.

"Whatever. Either way, it's _pathetic_." He shook his head. "Trying to go straight is a fool's errand. Evil is just a part of _who you are_. It's part of who _Drakken_ is, too! You might as well give in to the fact that you're villains, and bad ones at that!"

Shego's teeth ground together, her hands sporadically lighting up and flaming out as she began to earnestly put effort into not trying to kill the man then and there. She stalked up to him and growled, "What is the point you're trying to make? What's with the nonsense you're blathering about?"

"Point?" Gemini tilted his head. "I'm not trying to make a point."

"Then why are you trying to aggravate me? Why are you talking about this stuff _at all_? Do you have a death wish or something?" she snarled, her hands lighting up all the way.

"Oh no, quite the contrary," he noted, his eye darting behind her for a split second.

"Then why-.."

"Shego. Step away from my brother."

The green woman tensed up, then relaxed, letting the flames on her hands die out. She sighed as she realized his game. Of _course_ he'd been trying to distract her… Shego should've realized that Mama couldn't take up Betty's attention forever.

"Sorry Betts, but I gotta do _something_ ," Shego shrugged, not bothering to turn around. She knew that Betty probably had her watch trained on the former villainess.

"No you don't." The sound of a footstep from behind Shego let her know that Betty was closing in. "What you need to do is stand down."

Shego swiftly shifted her stance so she was then facing Betty, poised for combat. "I'm ready to go whenever you are."

A few tense moments of the two women sizing each other up.

Betty struck first, firing her taser watch and dodging down and away from Shego in one movement.

It was easy as pie for the green woman to move out of the way of the prongs. Even easier for her to close the distance that Betty had tried to buy and take a lit-up swipe at the older woman.

The brunette ducked down under the shot and loosed a windmill kick. Shego flipped backwards from it to the middle of the cell and chuckled.

"You really are going to try and stop me, aren't you?" Shego asked, amusement creeping into her voice. "You don't even know what I'm planning on doing! For all you know, I might just want to depants him or something."

"For what he did to Drew? And Kimberly?" Shego's eyes narrowed at that comment; it was pretty obvious to her that Betty was reaching at straws a bit to try and get information on her and Kim's relationship. A little clumsy, in Shego's opinion.

She sighed and carelessly said, "...yeah, even _I_ can't pretend that I'll take it easy on him for what he did to Drew."

"Gemini isn't a threat to anyone anymore," Betty assured the green woman. "You don't need to seek any kind of vengeance against him."

"He's practically _begging_ for it!" she growled in reply. "Egging me on…!"

"She isn't wrong," Gemini noted with an amused chuckle.

"Be _quiet_ , Sheldon," his sister hissed, sparing him a glare. She took a sliding step towards Shego and said, "You're just playing into his game by giving in to his taunting. If you just _calm down_ …!"

"Yea-.. No." Shego's hands lit back up. "I wanna make sure he knows to _never_ screw around with my family aga-.."

"Ma'am!" An agent rushed into the room, interrupting the apparent stalemate.

"What is it _now_!?" Betty asked, exasperated, though she didn't drop her stance.

"It's Drew Lipsky! He's gone _berserk_!"

"Ha!" Gemini let out a short laughing spree. "I'm betting you were idiots and let him out of whatever cage you had him in, didn't you?" He smiled. "I wonder, how long will it take for him to find me?"

Betty glared at Shego as the two women raced together out of Gemini's cell. "I told you he was a public danger!" She stopped for a moment and motioned for the guards to reseal and take position around Gemini's containment cell.

"You don't even know what set him off!" Shego snarled in reply as they raced across the complex. "For all we know, your men baited him."

"Baited-.." Dr Director growled, "My men are too well-trained to do anything that foolish."

"About as well-trained as _rabid monkeys_ ," Shego retorted loudly as the noise of fighting got closer and closer. "One name: Will Du!"

"I thi-.." Betty was cut off by screaming, a body of a GJ agent flying and skidding to a stop in front of the two women. The woman jerked once, twice, then went quiet. Shego shuddered at the sudden stillness of the agent.

Dr Director dropped down to tend to her and to check for a pulse. Betty waited for a few moments before cursing, "Dammit…!" She then began applying CPR.

"Where is Lord Gemini?!" they heard Drew growl loudly from just down the hall. "I _need_ to know…!"

"Doc!" Shego called out and ran towards where she heard his voice.

In a narrow hallway, a four-way intersection, Drew stood with vines flailing unsettlingly as he looked around with wild eyes. He was surrounded by agents whose wrist tasers were practically bouncing off of his skin. Several others were shooting him with energy weapons. Surprisingly, he flinched a little with each blast. Drew then looked at her, eyes slightly unfocused.

"Drew…" She began to walk towards him, slowly, carefully. She wasn't eager to have another round with him, and she was sure that he was okay enough to get himself back under control… Earlier showed her that Drew was still there. "Why do you need to know where Gemini is?"

"My mother said she'd _attacked_ him…!" Drew cried, tearing at his hair. "I _need_ to make sure-.."

"Make sure what? That he's okay?" Shego gave him a look.

"Yes!" He paused, eyes refocusing as he looked at her, then shook his head, "No!" His face twisted as he said, "I _don't know_!" He dropped from his fighting stance and fell to his knees, sobbing with vines curling up and around him. "I don't _know_ …"

"Where is your mother?" she asked, breath held in worry. If he was reacting like this to simple guards, what did he do to Gemini's attacker…? "What did you do to her?"

"I… I…" He sniffled and wailed, " _I DON'T KNOW_!"

"She's injured and unconscious, but still alive," an agent behind Drew supplied. "She's broken at least a few bones. If I'm being honest, she's in danger of dying from internal injuries… But, again, she's still alive. For now."

Drew began to hyperventilate, clenching up tight enough that Shego almost believed that she could've rolled him over easily.

Dr Director approached Shego, tense. "We managed to save that agent," she noted grimly. "There's a smattering of broken bones and bruises… But, other than that poor agent and Mama Lipsky, no one was seriously injured."

"It's okay, Doc..." she soothed. Shego's eyes didn't leave her husband as she said that. What had Mama Lipsky said that set him off? Was it just because of the whole 'attacking him' thing? Mama Lipsky didn't even really hurt the one-eyed villain!

Shego sighed, shoulder slouching as she realized... "I guess he'll have to go back to his cell, huh?"

"I will still release him to your care," Betty said, having carefully walked up to her. Around them, agents closed in, locking Shego out of the loop as they trained their energy weapons on her husband, likely in case he had another outburst.

The green woman turned her gaze to the brunette, surprise evident on her face.

"I was serious about wanting that cell free for continued testing," Betty said, her eye narrowed. "I hope that you understand my warnings now… That you'll actually _listen to me_ instead of writing me off. And that you'll go through with your promise to rehabilitate him in a _distant_ lair, far away from any innocent bystander he could hurt."

Shego's eyes softened as she looked at her doc, who was still sitting on the ground and crying. "Yeah, I think I get it now…" She shouldered her way past several wary agents straight to her husband. Ducking down to about Mama's height, she said, "Don't worry, Doc, everything's fine…"

He looked up at her, doe-eyed like earlier. Mournfully, looking between Betty and Shego, he murmured, "I didn't _mean_ to…"

Shego got to her knees and hugged him. "Yeah, I know you didn't."

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry about the long hiatus thing. I got sick and was in the hospital for a while. Then I got a new job and moved. Been a busy busy time.


	16. Drew and Shego 2

Shego sighed as she set her bags down in the comparatively cramped master bedroom of the lair deep in British Columbia. It had only been that day that Doctor D had been released from GJ care, but it had been a long, dragging process.

He'd been led out under the direct gaze of Betts and a vanguard of 19 GJ agents. All of them had been equipped with the energy weapons that had managed to have an effect on him when he went berserk before. They'd also chained him up, cuffs and mouth guard included - a purely symbolic move, as the doc's vines could've torn them to scrap in half a second. It was dehumanizing in Shego's opinion. Treating him like a rabid animal… But then she would flash back to his freak-out, where he _had_ been acting like one… The only bright spot in it all was that they let him put on _actual_ clothes. Sure, they were massively oversized gray jogging clothes, but that was pretty necessary to fit over that chest and the thorns.

It had been a good thing that Kimmie had ducked out when she did. It would've been ten times worse if she's seen Drew acting nutso. Or, somehow even _worse_ than that, if she'd been in the cell with Mama Lipsky. Drew was _still_ painfully torn up about it, even though he hadn't been in his right mind.

Speaking of which…

Shego turned and made her way back to the main living room, a good spiral staircase and two hallways away from the bedroom. She flipped her hair behind her as she walked into the main room, expecting to have to forcibly uncurl the doc, make him relax, and try to take things a little at a time.

Surprisingly, he wasn't where she'd left him, standing vaguely in the entrance to the lair.

"Hm…" Shego cocked her hip and looked around the room, as if Drew was just hiding in the corner of the room like he had before the fight with him and Gemini started. To absolutely no surprise, he wasn't hiding from her in plain sight.

So where…?

Shego's brows knitted together as she thought for a moment on where he might have vanished to. There wasn't that much going for the British Columbia lair. Nestled in the side of a mountain, it hadn't actually broke ground in the mountain itself. It was mostly a hideaway lair, far away from where most people would be and not even marked down in HenchCo files as their property. Perfect for their purposes.

But that led back to the question of where in the world her doc had gone…

Deciding to do a full search - and hoping he hadn't snuck off to try and save his dear 'Lord' Gemini - she started from the top, the hanger.

To her relief, the hover car was still there. No sign of Drew, though.

Next was the kitchen. It _had_ been a long drive, and the doc might've been thinking ahead and started whipping up a snack or something.

Nope. Not there either. And, to Shego's frustration, they hadn't stocked this lair up with non-perishable goods the last time they were here. Those bananas looked ripe as death. She roasted them with her powers to put them out of their blackened mushy misery and to help get rid of the stench.

Now it was time to check the lab. Maybe he had a brain flash for a new invention?

As she neared the small, rather underequipped lab that was located in the middle of the lair, she heard the loud buzzing noise that was always Doctor D messing around with his welder.

Bingo.

She entered the lab, making sure to grab the protective goggles that was a practically necessary accessory for even being near welding that was hanging by the door, and walked right on in.

Drew was standing hunched over one of his workbenches. His vines held a plethora of parts and tools, everything a mad scientist would need to create whatever monstrous invention he had cooking in his head. He was welding what almost looked like… A lampshade? How in the world did he get stuff built so fast?

Ah well. It didn't matter.

"Yo," Shego started out, being careful to squeeze his shoulder gently so he didn't get startled and fry her in the face with the torch. When he stopped and turned around, carelessly swinging the torch, Shego sighed to herself at her wasted effort at being safe. Ignoring that annoyance, she asked as he turned the torch off and set it down on the table, "What in the world are you doing? We _literally_ just got here!"

"I, uhm…" He began to twiddle his fingers and vines as he spluttered, "I just thought that you, erm, might want something nice to, ah, pass the time. You like sunbathing a lot, so I was building you a deluxe sunlamp. One that will give you a suntan with _real_ sunlight!" His brows came together with concern as he hesitantly asked, "That's okay, right?"

There was something… _Off_ about the way he said it. He sounded almost desperate for her to approve of what he was doing. At the same time, it was something Doctor D would've been doing on his own anyway… Maybe he was trying in his own way to get back to normal?

Deciding it was best to play along, Shego condescendingly patted his shoulder. "Yeah, that's fine, Doc. Whatever floats your boat."

He brightened up considerably at her allowance and bobbed his head up and down excitably. He proudly proclaimed, "Don't you worry! This will be the _best_ sunlamp you've ever seen!"

Again, alarm bells went off in Shego's head. There was something that was _not right_ about how he was talking about doing his usual thing. It made Shego's skin crawl for some reason.

"Are you okay?" she bluntly asked, giving him a look.

Drew shrank back, shame and worry radiating off of him. "What did I do wrong?"

She blinked. What?

Apparently confusing her own confusion with disapproval, he began to shiver slightly as he yelped, "Whatever it was, I didn't mean it!" He began to curl in on himself. "I didn't mean-.."

"Whoa, calm down, Doc," Shego interrupted, cutting off his panic attack as soon as she could. "You didn't do anything wrong."

He paused, still half-curled into himself, and cautiously asked, "For realsies?"

Damn. It just struck her… This… Helping him… This wasn't going to be easy. At all. Sure, she didn't think it'd be a walk in the park, but...

Sighing, trying to relax so _he_ would relax, she murmured, "Yeah, 'for realsies'."

He began to calm down, his vines uncurling and resuming their aimless wriggling in the air. Slowly he asked, "So you don't want me to build what would make you happy?"

"I want you to build what _you_ want to build," Shego said, her face softening slightly at his fearful reactions. "I'm not gonna get upset with you for doing things you want to do."

"Really?" He sounded skeptical.

"Look, I just want things to be back to the way they were," she replied, trying not to get testy with him. "Which is normally you making your crime-against-humanity inventions and me relaxing and getting a tan, or hanging in a jacuzzi, or other, far better activities than your nerdy crap."

Drew suddenly began to pace, muttering to himself under his breath. "Back to… Normal… Hm…"

Her eyebrow quirked at the change in attitude. He was even more irregular than usual. Though, again, with what he'd been through…

Shaking it off, she waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, you go ahead and figure out what that'd be for now."

"Yes, yes, I'll do that…" He twirled back around to his workbench. "But first! I need to finish your sunlamp!"

Ugh.

* * *

"Alright, Doc, time for bed." Shego stretched and got up from her sunchair, letting herself begin to relax into the tired feeling in her muscles. It'd been a long, trying day, and all she wanted to do was lay down and sleep.

She'd made the executive decision to wait until the next day to start the rehab process in earnest. No need to pile on everything in one day. Taking it slow would probably be more beneficial in the long-term.

"Okay…" he said hesitantly, then nodded slowly, putting the equipment and pieces that he'd been using to create a portable scanning electron microscope down into the bench.

Shego blinked. Weird. Normally it took a lot of haranguing to get him to even _consider_ going to bed when she did. Maybe he was just as tired as she was. Ah well. It didn't matter.

She led the way to the bedroom, him trailing behind almost uncertainly.

Once there, she locked the door behind them and began digging around in her bag for her clothes. Once she found most of them, she took them over to their small dresser. Shego shoved most of them into drawers, vowing to properly fold them in the next few days. The only clothes she left out were her dark green silk pajamas with the light green highlights. She slipped them on, piling her favorite catsuit and gloves together and leaving the boots in front of the dresser. The tiled floor was cold, but tolerable.

She blinked then, realizing that Drew hadn't started unpacking. Then duh, she remembered that he didn't really _have_ anything to unpack. Pretty much none of his clothes fit him now, and he normally packed light. All he'd brought was his weirdo teddy bear and a toothbrush he'd cobbled together while she was packing at one of their side lairs using some kind of metal and some softer type of wire. To his consternation and Shego's amusement, regular toothbrushes simply couldn't fit right in his mouth and around his teeth anymore, nor could they handle the chewing that the doc sometimes did out of habit.

Sighing, ready to deal with his complaints about having to wear the same clothes to bed as he'd spent the day in, Shego turned from the dresser to look at him. To her minor surprise, he hadn't moved, his eyes firmly locked on the fluffy comforter laden and red silk sheeted California king bed with a vague look of discomfort.

"Uh, Doc?" She walked over and snapped her fingers in his face. He flinched back from her fingers and shook his head in annoyance, snorting while giving her a dirty look. Once she was sure she had his attention, she asked, "What's going on in that pea brain of yours?"

Flustered, he muttered, "Erm, I, uhm…" His face purpled as he looked away and practically whispered something.

"What?" Shego poked him in the arm, to which he pulled away a little. Exasperated, she pried, "I couldn't hear that. Mind telling the class what's up?"

Drew sighed dramatically as he again said something while facing away from her.

"Drew," she growled, resisting lighting up her hands to accentuate her annoyance, "I. Can't. Hear. You. Say it in a big kid voice!"

Suddenly, standing stock straight, he burst out, "I don't think I can sleep on the bed!"

Shego blinked a few times. That was… Confused, she asked, "What in the world do you mean? Like…" She tried to make sense of what he'd said. "...is it one of the ones that have the springs you hate?"

"Yes," he said, then shook his head. "But that's not why!"

"What is it then?" Shego demanded.

"I just…" He rubbed an arm with his other hand. "I don't think I can."

"You pouting or something? Don't want to sleep on a bed, woe is me sorta thing?" Shego said sharply.

"Nono, nothing like that!" He waved his arms defensively. "I mean, I _want_ to, but…" He resumed staring at the bed and swallowed. "Just… Being this close to a _real_ , not-prison-not-punishment bed…" He cringed as he said, "Lord Gemini said that I wasn't worthy of a bed, and he didn't want me to be too far away from him…"

"Where in the world did you sleep?" Shego asked, a little afraid to know the answer.

He vaguely shrugged. "I slept on the floor, in the corner." At her incredulous look, he said a bit defensively, "That was an upgrade! Before he would make me sleep on the rack, strapped in, while he slept on the rollaway."

Yikes. "That sounds…" There was no sugarcoating it. Cringing, Shego stated, "Awful…"

"I deserved it," Drew said forlornly, looking down shamefully.

"Why?"

He looked back up at her. "Hm?"

"What in the world did you do to earn that kind of treatment?" Shego repeated with disgust.

"I, uhm…" He kicked at the ground. "I didn't treat Lord Gemini with the respect he deserves, and wasn't a good enough underling."

"Drew…" Shego looked up at him. " _No one_ deserves to be treated like that… _Especially_ you by that… That _psychopath_! And for what? Because you didn't jump when he told you to?" She reached out to cradle his face. He flinched away, taking a half-step back from her and raising his arms defensively. Her eyes widened in surprise. She wasn't being aggressive in her stance. Not like she normally would be when he used to flinch like that, when she treated him badly. Seeing him react like that, just from that… At the same time, she got it, as much as she hated it. She'd practically forced herself on him in the cell. Now he had room to flinch back, get away from possible punishment. She'd just _hoped_...

Shego let her hands hover in the air for a second before dropping them again in temporary defeat. Sighing, she bitterly growled, "I should've roasted his ass the second I got the chance."

"I'm not _meaning_ to do that!" Drew said, grumbling at himself as he crossed his arms and slumped down, yet still keeping a short distance between himself and Shego. "Just, being _out_ and in a lair again…"

"Yeah, I get it," Shego replied.

She took a moment to bite her lip, thinking. She did get it. She really did. In prison, he was caged. Trapped. Yet, at the same time, he was safe. Gemini couldn't get him there. Outside that self-contained cage, though, he's out in the open. Gemini could waltz right in at any moment and start right back where he'd left it all. He'd been tormented by that monster in their favorite lair, too. It wasn't like they varied up their lair designs that much. Even if it was a different lair, it had a similar aesthetic.

It probably didn't hurt that he was being punished just by being in the prison cell. Seemed like Gemini was all about punishment.

"Nnnngh…" Her husband stomped over to the edge of the room and flopped down.

Shego tilted an eyebrow at him. "What in the world are you-.."

"I'm going to bed!" he snapped, making a show of stretching out on the floor on his stomach. It was reminiscent of a grumpy cat. "There's no way I could sleep in a bed, and we're _supposed_ to be laying down for the night."

"You aren't even going to _try_?" she asked with a little more anger than she meant.

Drew cringed a little. "I, erm… I guess..."

It was obvious he was about to cave. But… This wasn't about her getting her way, as great and right as she was.

"Doc…" She walked over to where he had curled up. Ducking down, she murmured, "So, you really don't think you could sleep in a bed? Or even lay in one?"

Hesitantly, he answered, "...no."

"Okay then." Shego went to the bed, gathered the comforter and pillows, walked back over to Drew, and tossed everything at him.

"What in the world are you doing?" Drew asked, incredulity plastered on his face as part of the comforter stuck to his horns.

"I'm going to bed too," she said with a shrug, pulling the comforter off of his face as she sat down. At his slack-jawed stare, she noted, "It's the bed that you don't think you could handle, right?" After a moment, he slowly nodded. "So you think you can handle having _something_ comfortable, like these pillows and the blanket?"

"I…" Drew poked the pillow closest to him and ran a hand down the comforter. "I guess… I can try?" He cringed. "As long as you lock the door and everything up. So no one can come in."

"Doy!" She flicked his nose, to which he yelped and covered it with a hand and a few vines.

"I just wanted to make sure!" He shifted uncomfortably before settling back down. A vine shot out and snagged a pillow, flopping it haphazardously under his head before curling up with its brethren on the floor. His head hovered over the pillow, looking at Shego expectantly. "Well?"

"Well what?" She was _not_ up for playing any guessing games right now.

"Aren't you going to lock the door?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "I locked it when we came in, genius."

"Oh, uhm, erm…" He flushed a barely noticeable purple. Then, angrily, he sputtered, "I was a little focused on the bed problem!"

"Obviously." Her head shook back and forth as she sighed in consternation. Hopefully he wouldn't keep being this hardheaded in the weeks to come. Goodness knew that her patience and knowledge would be pushed to the limit with trying to treat him. It would just add another layer of frustration to everything if he was just as dense later as he was being now.

Whatever. That was a problem for tomorrow.

Chuckling a little at his still peeved and embarrassed expression, she stated, "It's fine. Nothing to get worked up over, Doc."

"Easy for you to say," he said with a pout. "You didn't do it."

"Not everyone can be as perfect as me," she noted, smirking.

"Nnnnnngh…" His teeth clicked as he moved his jaw, but there was none of the normal distinctive noise of them grinding together.

For the first time in a week, Shego let out a heartfelt mirthful laugh. It was a relief, even after the entire mess and everything, that they could still have their normal back-and-forths, even if it was just a little bit.

Drew didn't take kindly to her continued reaction. Snorting and snarling, he rolled his head to face away from her and flopped down hard against the pillow. His vines obediently curled up and around him in a way that didn't get on Shego's side at all.

Shego rolled her eyes as she laid down and crawled under the annoyingly large amount of comforter. For having said he was okay with it, he sure wasn't acting like it. It was barely covering his shoulders. Though, to be fair to him, the spines kind of got in the way of pulling it over him. She could have offered to drag it over and actually on him… But she knew how _that_ would end. Indignant outrage on his part with some pouting on the side.

Sometimes he was _such_ a drama queen.

She floofed the comforter around her, tucking it in and around her so she wasn't in direct contact with the floor. It wasn't because she _couldn't_ sleep on a bare floor. There were plenty of times when they'd been reduced to it when their various schemes failed and they had to lay low. Shego just preferred to have creature comforts when she could.

She tried to clear her mind and curl her back up against Drew's side. To her surprise and consternation, he let out a strange growling gasp before he scooted a little away from her, leaving a gap between the two of them. There was a brief thought of snarling about what his deal was, but she thought better of it. Waiting until tomorrow to start the dirty work...

It was annoying. It was frustrating. Shego felt the wall that it was keenly. To _her_ , it was a sudden shift in the way things were. Just last week they had been cuddling in bed, something she was usually loathe to do, with him blabbering about the odds of them conceiving another child. But to _him_ , it had been months of torture, conditioning, and whatever other goodies Gemini had left in her doc's brain that made it all a gradual shift.

She mentally snarled as she thought about that smug little snake of a villain. Why did Gemini have to come along and continually ruin everything they built up? It was like a neverending cycle of revenge that had managed to swallow their family up. All starting with that stupid job Drew had gotten.

Her thoughts paused. That job. That stupid job that he'd gotten purely because their fledgling little family needed the support. The job that she'd given the go-ahead for him taking, even though she'd known the risk.

...had he understood exactly what he was agreeing to? The risk involved? Would he have _ever_ ended up in that position if she hadn't decided to waltz into his life?

Now that she thought about it, Shego realized that had she not gotten involved in his life, he wouldn't be like he was now. He wouldn't be scarred, wouldn't be mutated… _Wouldn't be damaged_.

Her brows came together as she wrestled with the variety of feelings that flooded her at that bit of realization. Disgust. Anger. A bit of self-assurance that she couldn't be that wrong, that none of it was her fault in the least. The biggest feeling that overpowered all the others, though, was guilt.

She'd never thought about the whole hero/villain world as opposed to what most normal people experienced all that often. There was a definite split between them. The most people tended to get from one was either being saved or tormented as some hostages and being caught up in the crossfire. Shego has grown up mostly in the dichotomy that was the non-normy side of things. But Drew… He'd been an average, mostly-there nerd who wasn't even _close_ to stepping foot in the world she grew up in.

And because of her, he got dragged kicking and screaming in the worst way possible into the hero/villain conflict.

Gah, what does someone do when they affect someone's life this drastically? ...should she apologize? Is that even acceptable for something this big?

"I'm sorry."

It took Shego a second to realize that that hadn't come from her mouth.

Incredulously, she said, "What?"

There was a growl and a snort from her significant other before he repeated, "I said I'm sorry!"

Shego flipped over to stare at him. Unsurprisingly, he had turned his head over to look at her. She asked incredulously, "For _what?"_

He cringed while he said, "For all of this mess. Having to deal with me. Having to deal with Lord Gemini." He paused and sighed, "For _everything_."

It was so weird hearing _Doctor D_ of all people actually apologize for something. Even weirder that it was something that wasn't even his fault this time!

"Doc, none of this is on you," Shego said as she propped herself up on an elbow. "Absolutely none of it. In fact…" Swallowing some pride, she admitted, "I was just trying to figure out how _I_ could say sorry to _you_!"

Strangely, confusion and fear flitted across his face. "What in the _world_ did _you_ do that would mean you'd have to apologize to _me_?"

Shego thought on how, exactly, to explain her reasoning. "Just… If I hadn't gotten you involved with all of this, you wouldn't be like you are now. You wouldn't've joined GJ, been kidnapped and tortured by Gemini _either_ time… Probably wouldn't have even gone villain. All that fun stuff."

"Oh." He settled down some before he frowned as he grumbled, "You make it sound like I had no agency in this whole mess!"

This time Shego was the one to tilt an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well… Just…" He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, clearly debating on if he should dare to speak up. Before she could tell him to spill, Drew went for it by saying, "I was the one that got to decide if I took that job. And I was the one that agreed that we needed to give Lord Gemini some payback for what had happened before." His brow furrowed as he added, "And I found my _own_ way to villainy after my mother nursed me back to health, thank you very much! You didn't have a single thing to do with it! So stop being so, so…" He floundered for the word. "...so _self-centered_ about this!" Self-assuredly, he finished with confidence, "None of it is your fault. So stop acting like it is!"

Ugh. She couldn't _believe_ they were having one of _those_ arguments. Both of them blaming themselves...

Then, she realized… "No. You know what? We're both right."

He tilted his eyebrow. "Hm?"

"None of this is on _either_ of us." She growled loudly, "This is all Gemini's fault…"

Drew cringed. "Lord Gemini's fault…?"

"Yeah." She loudly growled, "Him and his psycho obsessions, and just his psychoness in general. If he just _didn't exist_ we would've been fine!"

"I-.. I'm not sure Lord Gemini has any of the blame…?" Drew stuttered, looking around fearfully.

Ah. That's right. Yet another reminder of that monster's influence on their life.

"Don't worry. He is," Shego said with finality. She sighed and said, "Now, time to sleep. I'd wanted to wait until _tomorrow_ to tackle all this, remember?"

Drew cringed a little, but after a moment reluctantly nodded.

"Okay." Feeling a little mean, she condescendingly pat his head between his horns. "Nighty-night, Doctor D."

He stared, then replied, "Good night."

She flipped around so her back was to him again, being careful not to get too close for his comfort.

Then, suddenly, Shego felt him tense up through the comforter before he blurted, "I love you, Shego."

Why in the world would he tense up about that?

Shaking her head lightly in minor exasperation, she answered back as warmly as she could, "I love you too, Doc."

Just as suddenly, he began to relax. He still didn't touch her, but the slack from the comforter told her that he scooted noticeably closer. Shego held back a contented sigh, already feeling a little too emotionally open for her taste. But that was okay.

It wasn't much, but it was enough.

* * *

 **A/N:** Just a heads-up, the next chapter'll probably take a while. It'll be a Ron/Kim focused chapter, and goodness knows I'm not good at writing either of them, let ALONE them together...


	17. Ron and Kim

**A/N:** Heads up, this chapter and the next chapter are HEAVILY linked. Things will be a little weird and confusing this chapter. It's mostly on purpose. This isn't the full story, not by a long shot.

I was going to sit on this a bit longer, but my beta requested I post it. Thank Magic Flying Spud for the earlier posting.

Got a few things to talk about. Sorry for the wall of text. If you don't care or you've already read these particular notes in The Mad Scientist's Assistant, skip on down to the break.

Sorry on the huge wait. I needed a bit of a break. Needed to recharge a bit. Got into a new hobby. I'll be trying to make jewelry! Anyway, I was trying too hard to keep to an invisible schedule and burned myself out a bit.

I'm SUPER EXCITED! One of you... Some of you... Dunno how many... Nominated a bunch of my stuff for the Fannies! What are the Fannies? Basically it's a fandom awards thing specific to the KP fandom that honors various people for various things. Several of my fics are in SO MANY CATEGORIES I can't even list them! So many! If you feel like supporting my efforts (the S Plus D Equals K 'verse has a few nominations), head on over to the Kim Possible Discussion forum to found out how to vote me into the winner's circle! I would suggest messaging the award committee if there are any issues.

Now then, let's get this show on the road!

* * *

It had been about two and a half weeks since Drew had been released from GJ custody.

KP'd been acting… Pretty weird. She'd spent several days at the Canadian lair, trying to help out as best she could. But once it was clear that it wouldn't be an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy fixaroney, that it was gonna be slow goings, she'd come back to Middleton, vowing to visit as often as she could to help rehabilitate him.

So it was in Middleton and the Canadian lair that she stayed.

Kim kinda became a shut-in, avoiding all her extracurriculars. Like, some of the cheerleaders had texted him to see where she was at. Student gov texted too. She didn't even give them a heads-up on what was going on! Just up and dropped 'em all.

Missions too. Wade was in the middle of telling Ron about the old lady with the giant cat when he got an alert that Kim had passed the sitch over to Team Impossible. The boys tried reaching out to Kim on her Kimmunicator but she didn't pick up. All they knew was that Kim was passing on every single mission.

And, worst of all, she didn't even seem to want to be around him. She just… Stayed at the 'rents place, hanging out in her room and stuff. And when she didn't come down for dinner, Mrs. and Mr. Dr. Ps could only guess she was in Canada, helping Drew get back to normal.

Ron'd tried to help once, a week or so ago, but Drew just got all irritated at him. He was used to the dude not remembering his name, but lately Drew didn't even use normal speak with him. He just snarled at him! Like an angry animal snarl! _Totally_ uncool.

To Ron's concern, Drew didn't seem much better.

He didn't eat unless someone told him he could. Not even Ron's badical cooking got him to dig in until he got permission!

When he was alone he took some initiative, but if someone was there to give him direction he waited until it was given.

Worst of all, considering his partner, Drew folded almost the instant someone pressed him on something. Like, he argued and stuff, but if push came to shove he was like a house of cards.

All in all, it was a sucky situation.

But! It wouldn't be like that forever! They'd definitely, 100 percent be able to help Drew. Ron just knew they could! It was all about being optimistic and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

He could tell KP was struggling with it, though. _Really_ bad. And with the way she'd been acting lately…

That was why he was dropping by without a heads-up. If he texted, it'd just be the ol' runaround of ' _Oh Ron it's okay, I'm fine, can you come later?'_ and ' _But Kim I'm around now can we please talk?'_ followed by ' _No Ron, seriously, sorry.'._

There was _definitely_ something wrong. And he wanted to, _was going to_ help.

Like it or not, Drew was his dad now too. Kim didn't have to shoulder the burden by herself.

This was Serious Talk time. Just him 'n' Kim. Rufus understood, choosing to stay at their house while they talked about stuff. He was a good buddy like that.

Ron didn't knock on the door, instead just walked in like he lived there. Which he kinda did. Heck, before the mess with that Gemini guy he was over pretty much every day!

Ron heard a voice in the kitchen. Deciding, hoping, seriously hoping, that KP was in there, he walked straight through the house to the kitchen.

To his disappointment, it was Mrs. Dr. P. cooking up something or other while she hummed some kind of tune. Whatever it was smelled good… But he wasn't here for that. As much as he liked to eat, Kim was more important.

"Ronald!" Kim's mom said joyfully, looking up at him from the skillet on the small island where the stove was nestled. Clearly, even with as goofy as he was, he was a sight for sore eyes. "It's good to see you! I'm guessing Kimmie called you over?"

"Ah, that's a negative," he replied.

Mrs Dr P's face fell. "Oh." Her lips quirked as she looked down to the skillet, sinking into the sad humdrum routine.

Ron shifted a little as he explained, "I came over 'cause I'm worried about Kim and stuff. Haven't really chit-chatted with KP for a while. Wanted to chat, catch up, maybe figure out what's going on…"

"She isn't…" The redhead's face scrunched up as she said, "We haven't really been talking either."

"I know," Ron sighed. He really wasn't looking forward to this. Him and Kim meshed because of their silly rapport and soft quipping. This was kind of a jump for him. His _Note Serious Face_ was intended more for spooking villains than it was for reaching emotional catharsis. Hoping to answer at least one of his questions, he asked, "Do you happen to know if KP is going to class?"

Kim's mom's face twisted even more, almost as if she was trying to keep her food down, as she answered, "No. She hasn't."

"Ah." Ron rubbed at his arm, having some trouble making eye contact.

It felt really _really_ awkward even _thinking_ about some of this stuff running through his head, let alone asking Mrs. Dr. P. about it. Because those thoughts about ditching activities and not taking care of responsibilities was about KP! HIS KP! Always the responsible one. For as long as he could remember, he floated along in life doing his own thing in her trailblazing wake. Always on top of everything, doing anything possible to make the world a better place.

But now she was…

He shook his head. Then, throwing on a bright smile, Ron said, "It'll be okay, Mrs. Dr. P! The Ronman's here to get to the bottom of it."

The redhead nodded. "I hope so, for Kimmie's sake." She nodded her head, this time more upwards. "Last I knew she was in her room. I haven't heard her leave, but that doesn't mean too much."

"Gotcha." The blond nodded again and turned around. As he headed towards the staircase to KP's room he noted, "That smells _awesome_ , but you might want to add a touch of coriander?"

"Coriander?" She took a quick taste, then gave a nod and a small hum of thanks. "Thought it was missing something…" As Ron left the room, he heard her quietly say, "Good luck."

Ron skipped his way up the stairs to his fiancée's room. As it was before, it was in the attic of the Possible home, though now it was easy-peasy to get into. The door was an actual normal door and everything!

He debated with himself for a few moments, wondering if he should just wander in or knock. On one hand, it was practically his home too. And it wasn't like it would be weird if he walked in on her.

...but on the other hand, he loved and respected her. It would be a total violation of trust if he just burst in when she was so down in the dumps.

So he decided to knock.

After a few seconds, a muffled voice called out, "Come in!"

Swallowing down his nerves, Ron opened the door and climbed up the stairs into Kim's room.

KP was sitting on her bed, completely engrossed in a book. Ron couldn't read the title from the angle he was at, but it looked like it had a picture of a head and a brain on it.

"I'm a little busy right now with this psych book, but if you could do me a solid and put dinner on the dresser that would be spankin'," Kim said, not looking up from the book. "Whatever it is smells great! Thanks for cooking something up for me."

He stood there, confused. She really must be into that book! Whatever Mrs. Dr. P was cooking wasn't smellable from where they were. The empty compliment made him feel a little queasy for some reason.

Awkwardly he cleared his throat and, scuffing his foot against the floor, hesitantly said, "Heya KP."

Kim blinked, surprise crossing her face as she looked up from her book to meet his gaze. She set her book down messily and got up from the bed, reaching her non-injured arm towards him. "Ron?" Suddenly her arm dropped back to her side and a frown tugged at her lips as she asked, "What's the sitch?"

Ron tilted his head; this was a _little_ out of character for his fiancee. Shaking it off, he replied, "I, uh, wanted to see you."

"Oh." Her frown deepened further as she said, "I'm sorry. I've been way busy."

"Eh? With what? Have you been doing research stuff for helping Drew?" He bounced on his heels and spoke fast. "Just… You know me 'n' Wade are here for you, right? I mean, we're totally getting married and stuff!" Ron thought on his words for a moment. "...you and me, not me and Wade." Enthusiastically he pounded his fist into his palm. "I'm here for you, no matter what."

Kim bit her lip and looked away. "He's _my_ dad, Ron. I… I need to do this. Help him. He needs family to help him through this."

A lump of uncomfortableness formed in his gut. It made him a little nauseous and nervous, but he had to ask. Get her to talk about it. And, maybe, make her realize that she wasn't alone.

"Hey… You know, I heard you haven't been doing your stuff. Like class and stuff. You've kinda just holed yourself up away from everyone." He rubbed his arm while he looked at her. "I just-.." He swallowed down a lump and lamely said, "We're worried."

"I…" She turned her eyes to the floor. "I'm fine. Just trying to fix things. Get things back to normal." A limp shrug rolled from her shoulders. "Doing make-up work when Drew's better will be no big."

Here it was. The elephant in the room.

Carefully, Ron took the few steps to stand in front of his KP. His hands settled on her shoulders and he ducked his head down to try and look her in the eyes again.

"KP… Kim…" he started, trying to find the right words to get through to her. "...you know it won't be a fast recovery, right? Drew's gonna be messed up for a long time, like maybe months or years, and-.."

She cut him off, voice shaky, "Look, I just-.. I need to go to the Canadian lair." Kim wrenched herself free of his grasp and rushed out the door of her attic room.

Ron stood with his arms hanging in the air for a good few seconds, staring off into the space that she had been standing moments before. That was… That wasn't right. She was… That was all wrong. There was something seriously messed up. And he wasn't going to let it slide. Determination filled him as he raced to catch up to his fiancée.

She was already in the garage when he managed to finally match pace with her. Her good hand was fumbling with the keys when he came up behind her. A twitch of her head towards him and the pause in her attempts to get into her car let him know that she knew he was there.

"KP…" he set a hand on her shoulder. "We're partners. For _life_. If…" Ron shook his head and took a small step back, spreading his arms wide. "I'm here for you. _Please_ , I want to help. We're _Team Possible_. Don't forget that!"

"I… I…" She began to bodily shake before her head dropped and she shouted, "I have to keep trying! This isn't something you need to do! I…" her good fist clenched "...I have to do this."

"I'm not saying you can-.."

Suddenly, like a dam bursting, she practically shrieked, "But I CAN'T!"

The turnaround in her behavior freaked Ron out a little. "Whoa, KP. I don't-.."

"I _can't help_!" Kim turned and began pounding the hood of her car with her good arm, teeth grinding audibly as she did so. She snarled, "I can do anything… Anything but _this._ Dad needs help and _I can't help him_. I don't know anything about genetics. I can't help with the psychological scars. _I can't help with anything._ " She clenched her fists tightly, fingers turning white from the effort. "I feel so… So…"

He knew what she was feeling. Heck, he felt it during a ton of their missions! Now he kinda got what was going on.

After a few moments of silence, Ron carefully supplied, "Helpless."

"No!" Kim snapped. "I'm not helpless. I'm…" She muttered the next line, lip quivering. "Useless…"

Ron's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "What?"

"You heard me!" she cried, tears gathering in her eyes. "I'm USELESS! I can't do _anything_ right! Not when it counts! I keep letting everyone down!"

Ron's mouth opened and closed a few times. He reached around in his brain, scrambling to find words to help his partner realize that she was wrong, that she _wasn't_ useless. How she'd even gotten that idea in her head he didn't know, but it really badly needed out!

"I tried to help. I've _been trying_ to help. But nothing, _nothing_ I've done has had any impact." Kim growled angrily, as if trying to hide the soft, hitching sniffles between each breath. "Betty was going to release Drew anyway. I wasn't there to help Mama Lipsky, too… Too _cowardly_ to face the chance of Doctor Director finding out everything. If I'd been there…" She shook her head, then continued. "Heck, I _gave in_ to Shego's badgering about going shopping instead of heading back to the island. If we'd gotten there _sooner_ , maybe we could've… Could've…" Kim snorted and shook her head, eyes squinting, trying to hold in the tears. "And now, trying to help him recover from all of it… I can't even give _moral support_ right…" She suddenly slumped, like a puppet cut from its strings. "Some daughter I am… Some _hero_ I am…"

Ron stood, staring at his fiancé as she grit her teeth and tried to keep her emotions in check. This… This wasn't right. Not the whole sitch with not being able to help her dad. _That_ would upset pretty much anyone. But her reactions… Trying to suppress it all… _That_ wasn't right, or healthy.

He couldn't help fix Drew. But he could help his KP.

Ron took the step to come up behind her and enveloped her into a hug. She twisted around and finally began to let her emotions loose as she wrapped her arms around him.

"KP, you aren't useless…" Ron murmured into her hair, stroking her back as she buried her head into his chest.

"Then why can't I help him? Why can't I…" She gasped, then sobbed, tears finally falling as she gripped his back like he was a life preserver in the middle of a storm.

Then, suddenly, she took a step back and gave him a strange look. "And you…"

"And me…?" Ron tilted his head, confused. What did _he_ do?

"You've, you've been _holding back_! During missions!" Tears kept falling, her fists clenching against her head. "You _said_ as much during the debriefing with Global Justice!" She looked at him, hurt clear on her face. "Am I really that behind? That you have to _dumb_ _yourself down_ just so I can keep up?"

A lump formed in Ron's throat. That wasn't-.. No. Nonono, that wasn't right! Not at all! ...but now that she said it, it really did sound way bad.

"That isn't it! Not at all!" Ron waved his hands in front of himself as if warding off the blatant accusation.

"Then _why_? Huh? Why _hold yourself back_ when you can CLEARLY do everything yourself?!" Kim cried. Her hands splayed out in frustration at her sides, eyes narrowed in anger.

"I just-.." He cut himself off and looked away as he tried to swallow down the lump of guilt. The shame and guilt and all the not-good feelings he had about stuff.

This wasn't something he was ready to talk about. It was too fresh, too panic-y to try and put into words. How could he explain himself when even _he_ wasn't sure why he was doing it?

He looked back at KP shamefully. She stood stock-still, tears still flowing like little rivers and accusations shooting from her eyes.

...he had to tell her. Ron wasn't entirely sure what and why he felt the way he did, but it was clear that it had hit a point that he couldn't shut it down and hide it away anymore.

And… And it would be fine. They were partners after all, right?

Swallowing a few times while simultaneously trying to wet his dry mouth, he sighed out a hefty breath and said, "I killed those Lorwardians. Warmonga and Warhok. I killed them." Ron looked at his hands. "I… I would do it again, over and over to save you… _But I still killed them_. It makes me feel bad, whenever I use my MMP. Every time, I wonder if I'll lose control enough to hurt someone. Like, I have _no idea_ how strong I can be. I can hold back - I've gotten pretty good at holding back - but if I go at full strength? I…" he rubbed his arms "...I don't think I could keep it in check."

Kim seemed to hesitate at that. Process it for a few moments. It almost seemed to break through. She said quietly, "I…"

A few seconds later saw the anger come back full force along with a tinge of offense.

"You and I _both_ know that's garbage," Kim growled. "You're the mystical monkey _master_. You have _perfect_ control of your powers."

"As far as we can tell. It doesn't mean I have the max setting mastered," Ron insisted. "I could totally hurt you if I lose control!" He looked away as he admitted, "I was just trying to toss 'em away from you. The Lorwardians. I just wanted some room to breathe. I didn't think…" A pleading note entered his voice as he murmured, "I don't think I could handle it if I have to go max and somehow hurt you."

"Then why not just do everything yourself?!" KP snarled. "Why bring the tagalong fiancée? As a role reversal? Now _I'm_ the distraction?"

"I…" That hurt. That hurt a _lot_. She completely downplayed his role in their team. It was like… She thought he was less. And that sucked. "Look, there's nothing, _nothing_ wrong with being the distraction. It's still being a team! Teamwork! I mean, I guess maybe I can do some of it myself. But we're _Team Possible_. It just…" He gave a vague shrug, not quite reaching the words to explain his point. "I need you. I…" A waver entered his voice as he finished, "I like saving the world _with you_."

She stood there, nostrils flaring at the last little comment. The blond got the distinct feeling that he just said exactly the wrong thing.

"You 'need' me, huh? 'We're Team Possible'?" Her eyes narrowed. "How exactly do you 'need' me? As a cheerleader? Someone rooting for you from the sidelines?" She then hissed, "You still act like Potential Boy when we _both_ know you reached it! You don't need me at all! You…" her eyes suddenly widened in mild shock "...you pity me, don't you?"

"What?!" Nono _no_ , this was all going wrong! Why couldn't he-.. His thoughts made sense! He knew they did! They _had_ to make sense! But how did KP keep getting the wrong message? "I-.. I don't pity you! I _don't_!" He began pleading, "Please, Kim, I don't look down on you or, or anything! I love you! We're partners!"

"Partners?" She gave an angry dry laugh. "Yeah. Sure. I'm sure you love thinking about it like that."

"KP-.."

"I need some space." Kim lightly pushed him away from her car. "I-.. I can't talk to you right now. I can't _work_ with you right now."

" _Kim_ -.."

"Maybe when I'm finally at your level we can start things back up. But now?" She wiped at her eyes before she opened the door to her car. "Just… I need to think. And get better. Get Dad better, get me better…" His fiancée shivered a little. "I've fallen behind. Behind _everyone_." A bitter laugh escaped her throat. "Can you believe it? The girl that can do anything _failing_ so _spectacularly_ that people she cares about pay the price. I need…" her fists clenched "I need to be better. Just _be_ better. And… And I can't do that with you."

The last statement hit like a ton of bricks. "Are you…" He could barely form the words. "...breaking up with me?"

"No. I just…" She bit her lip. "I need a timeout. I do love you. But… I just…" Kim shook her head. "...can't. I can't do anything right now except try to _be better._ " A bitter smile crossed her lips. "How can I do that when I have someone that can already do it all for me at my back?"

Ron's mouth opened and closed, words trying and failing to make their way out. This wasn't right. _This wasn't right_. He couldn't-..

She hopped into the driver's seat. "We-.. We can talk more later, okay, Ron?" Just before she shut the door, she murmured, "I do love you…"

He stood there, slightly shaking, trying to think of where in the conversation things went wrong as she drove away.

It started off on a Bad Road and just kept rolling downhill. It was awful. None of his words were right, nothing made sense to KP, things ended up completely wrong. But...

She would come back. Right? That's… That's right. It _had_ to be right. She said she would! She loved him, he loved her. They were a team!

...at least, he thought they were.


	18. Mothers and Daughter, Kim and Ron 2

Kim happily sighed to herself as she landed in the hanger of the Canadian lair. Today was looking to be another solid day.

A few days ago they had a breakthrough. They finally got Drew to stand his ground in a push-comes-to-shove argument. True, it was a rather superficial debate on Space Passage, but it was something!

Things were looking pretty great!

Soon he would be fine. Once they got him through the mental blocks and such which she was certain they were close to breaking, changing him back physically would be a breeze. There were _several_ scientists that owed her. Of _course_ they could fix him.

Sure, nothing had happened until that breakthrough. And there was still work to be done. Him debating was the only thing that was different. He still did whatever anyone asked, and he still cringed and flinched whenever he thought he made someone upset with him.

But it would be easy! They got the ball rolling. She was certain in a few weeks he would be back to normal.

Kim had fallen behind. She just-.. Drew had to be better. Once he was better, she could start getting better. Catch up on her schoolwork and extracurriculars after the next couple of weeks would be no big. Learn some new martial arts, get some upgrades to her battlesuit. Figure out a few new tricks. She needed to catch up to Ron.

A flash of melancholy hit her as she thought back to the conversation the two of them had. He just didn't understand. How could he? This was all on her. He had already reached his potential. She had become complacent. It was her fault this all happened.

She had to make it better.

Kim made her way from the hanger down to the main living area. That was normally where she found Shego and Drew. It was big enough that if he had an outburst the two of them could dodge out of his way until he got himself back under control. They'd initially tried it in a more secure room. Kim could still remember the bruises from getting tossed into the wall. He hadn't meant to. Not at all. They just… It got too intense, and he panicked at the idea of Gemini walking in on them…

It had just been a small road bump. Nothing too bad. Soon they wouldn't need to even worry about it!

As expected, Shego was there, waiting for her. But to Kim's surprise-..

"Mom?" Kim stared, trying to understand why both her mothers were here. And… "Where's Drew?"

"Your dads are having a bit of a pow-wow," Shego said with a shrug of her shoulders.

A rush of apprehension flitted through her. "Is that even safe?! I mean, Drew doesn't have the best control, and-.."

"It's a risk," Anne agreed, "but we needed to have a talk with you that Drew simply couldn't handle, and your father volunteered to watch him."

Kim gaped. "What kind of talk would warrant something so dangerous? Dad isn't… If Drew loses control…"

"Things will work out fine," the older redhead said. She then motioned to the couch, a smaller dark green affair. "How about we sit down and start talking?"

"I…" Kim hesitated. This was very Not Normal. And talk? Again, she couldn't think of anything that would need such drastic action. If they thought it was important enough, though…

Obediently Kim walked over and sat on the couch, near the middle. Her mothers proceeded to sit on either side of her, almost like a pincer maneuver.

For some reason a shot of panic hit her. Whatever they wanted to talk about, it clearly wouldn't be pleasant. It lasted only a moment. They were her mothers. Whatever it was wouldn't be world-shattering. It was just important.

"Now then, Kimmie…" Shego shared a look with Anne, then started bluntly, "You haven't been going to class. Or doing world-saving stuff. Or _anything_. What's up?"

Kim blinked, confused. Wasn't it obvious? "I've been trying to help Drew."

"Ronald talked to me about your discussion," Anne said carefully. "About the helplessness."

A spark of offense along with a hint of betrayal ignited in Kim. Defensively Kim said, "It felt like a struggle. But we're making progress! He full-on argues now!"

Shego sighed, shoulders drooping for a moment before she straightened back up. Clearly frustrated, she asked, "Why have you put your entire life on hold? You need to focus on-.."

"I'm _helping_ ," Kim insisted. "Drew'll get better. He'll be back to normal in no time. Then it'll be a breeze catching up on everything. Really, it's no big."

The conversation so far was strange. They were acting like helping her dad wasn't important, or that it was impossible. Dedicating her time to helping him get back on his feet only made sense. Especially when they finally got the ball rolling! Everything after that would be easy.

"Cupcake, you're acting like this is easy," Shego said, apparently reading Kim's mind. "Do you even understand exactly how messed up Drew is? You _have_ been paying attention to the therapy sessions we've been having, right?"

"Well, yeah… But we're close!" Kim's brows came together as she continued, "We had a breakthrough! Cracked the wall. We just have to, to keep going!"

"More like inconveniently chipped it," Shego snarked.

"Kimmie…" Anne looked at Kim sadly. "It's not that easy. Drew… He'll be sick for a long time."

"A _really_ long time," Shego interjected. "We're talking _years_ here, Pumpkin. And we're just talking about the mental stuff. Physically? He'll probably never be fully human again."

No.

No, they were wrong.

Drew would be fine! He just-.. It was just taking a while was all. It would just be a few more weeks! Just a little longer!

"Kimmie…" Shego put an arm around Kim's shoulders which, to the younger redhead's surprise, were shaking. "Even if… When… He recovers, he won't be normal. Not like how he was."

"You…" The word was wavering, almost not making it out of her mouth. She needed to tell them! They were wrong! Her dad would get better and it would all be better. They would all go back to their regular lives, with Drew embarrassing her at her competitions! As hard as she tried, though, her throat closed up, not letting her tell them the truth.

"He's sick, and he'll never be fully better again." Anne sounded so calm about this, almost like she didn't even care. Why did she lie to Kim just now? "He's scarred, physically and mentally. No matter how well we rehabilitate him, he'll still have problems."

"You're _wrong_!" she finally managed to cry out, trying and failing to shake Shego's arm off her shoulders. Her voice was thick, and tears were, for some reason, dripping from her eyes. "Drew will be fine! He'll get better. Things will be better. Things will be normal again, and we'll all be a family again, and-.. And-.."

"We're still a family," her redheaded mom said. "Just… Things won't be like how they were before. Not completely." Anne pulled Kim's hands into her own. "Things will get better. But not back to normal. Things can't be the same again."

A flash in Kim's mind, back to the weeks before the first breakthrough. The struggle of getting nowhere, of no scrap of hope beyond her own determination...

Something clicked.

Her mom was right. Both of her moms were right.

Drew wasn't going to get better. Not like how she was thinking, hoping.

A hitched sniffle escaped her lips.

Then she exploded.

She began to wail, tears bursting from her eyes and falling in large globs as she shrank into herself. Her hands pulled free of Anne's and curled tightly against her face. Gasping breaths tore through her as Kim tried to grasp onto a thought, any thought, to make the ache in her heart stop. Make the truth go away. Make her earlier thoughts real.

But she couldn't.

Her thoughts were jumbled, nonsensical. She didn't know how long she was like that, screaming her grief and practically losing her mind. Eventually she started coming back to her senses.

Snot dripped from her nose, joining the tears streaming down her face. If she had been more with it she would've been mortified. But she was far too consumed with grief to think beyond the truth.

Things would never be normal again.

 _Things would never be normal again_.

The Drew that excitedly showing her his inventions. The dad that came to several of her meets and was the most embarrassing parent there. The man that planned out several vacations that they could take to make up for lost family time.

He might never come back. And if he did, it wouldn't be completely the same.

They had just started to-.. To be family. To be together like they should have been. Her excited dorky dad that showed how much he cared about her in overly energetic ways.

It was so good. It made her happy. They were all happy.

And now it was all gone. Ripped from their grasp all over again.

It _hurt_ …

Her crying settled down some, mostly due to not having the energy to carry on. Belatedly she realized both of her mothers were hugging her, each offering a shoulder to cry into. Kim shoved her face into them, shuddering and trying to catch her breath as her tears soaked into their clothes.

"It's okay, Cupcake," Shego murmured. "I get how messed-up and horrible this all is… _Trust_ me, I know it all too well. But…" she stroked Kim's head, her fingers tangling slightly "...at least we all still have each other. And Doc'll get better. Not _all the way_ better, but to a different kind of normal."

"Shego's right," Anne said soothingly. "Drew will be better eventually…"

Yeah. They were right. Things would… They would get better. But…

"It's all my fault," Kim choked out before letting out a couple more body-wracking sobs.

"What?!" Shego recoiled and gave Kim the evil eye. "Okay, time out. How is _any_ of this your fault?"

Kim leaned against Anne as she explained, "I-.. I should have been there, when Gemini showed up. I _should've known_ Gemini had escaped. I…" She swallowed, her mouth sticking together from dryness. She finished lamely, "I just, I should've been _better_."

"Ugh… It's like me and Drew all over again…" Shego grumbled. She sat there, staring at Kim for a moment.

Then she smacked the back of Kim's head.

"Ouch!" The younger redhead rubbed at the spot where Shego had hit her. She then asked heatedly, "What was _that_ for?!"

"Because you're being an idiot," Shego deadpanned. Kim opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off as Shego continued, "This entire thing? It's not on any of us. Not you, not me… _Especially_ not Doc. Ohhhh no." Her nostrils flared as she snarled, "This is all _Gemini's_ fault. That monster… Can't keep his psychoness in check."

Kim's eyes crinkled, tears threatening to start flowing again. "But-.."

"Bubble-butt…" Anne gently pulled Kim's face to look her in the eyes. "This isn't your fault." She cupped Kim's face. "Repeat after me: this isn't my fault."

Kim's mouth moved wordlessly a few times before she managed to squeak out, "This… Isn't my fault."

It felt like the Centurion project all over again. The lie…

"This isn't my fault," her redheaded mother repeated.

"This isn't my fault," Kim said, a little louder this time.

"With conviction, Kimmie! It's true!" Shego settled an arm on Kim's shoulder. "Do you really think we'd lie about something like this?"

A deep part of Kim did believe they could. ...but it didn't believe it now.

They were being honest. They _had_ been honest, the entire time.

She just… The guilt was there. It wouldn't be shaken away just by saying that it wasn't her fault. Yet, somehow, it really was making her feel a bit better.

"It's not my fault," Kim said again, this time without Anne's coaxing. "I just…" She shook her head. "It's going to take some time."

"That's fine," the oldest woman soothed, stroking Kim's hair now. "No one's expecting things to be back to how they were with all of us. But we can get through it. As a family."

Yeah, that's right. They were a family. Not alone. It wasn't her fault, there was nothing different she could have done. They were all together, a team.

They could face it.

Together.

That thought brought her back to Ron and their discussion. Her attempt to avoid a meltdown around him. Her, pushing him away.

Kim still felt behind. Ron was better than her now. She really did have to get better, improve her skills. It had been a while since she'd put effort into improving on the fighting/world-saving front. And she had the nerve to accuse Ron of coasting in the years before…?

...it didn't warrant her reaction. She was… She lashed out at him. Didn't want to listen to the truth. He didn't deserve it.

They needed to talk again. And… And she had to be honest. About everything.

"I…" Kim bit her lip. "I just…"

"We all agree, helping Drew is important…" Shego scruffed Kim's hair. "But that doesn't mean you should wreck and derail your entire life for it!"

"Get back to your life, Bubble-Butt," her redheaded mother urged.

Kim sighed, a few loose tears streaming down her face. "I just… I want to help."

"You have," Shego reassured her. "But even Drew, as dopey as he is, has noticed how often you're over. Starting to connect dots. He won't admit it, but it's stressing him out some."

The heroine didn't want that. She didn't want that at all.

"Heck, even _I_ plan on doing stuff outside of helping Drew!" the green woman pinched Kim's cheek. "Gotta get into college and show up my precious lil' Princess!"

"Agh!" Kim pulled away from her, rubbing at her now sore cheek.

"Anyway…" Anne patted her daughter's shoulder. "We all want you to start life back up. Go on missions. Do class work. Participate in student government." She gave Kim a big hug. "And make up with Ronald."

"Yeah…" Kim wiped away the last remaining tears. "I… Yeah. I will."

"Great! Good talk. Glad we broke through that wall of denial." Shego gave Kim a quick hug before hopping up from her seat. "Now, how 'bout we go check on the boys? Gotta admit, I'm pretty worried about that geezer of a husband of yours, Anne."

"James can handle himself," her other mother said, also getting up from the couch. "I'm just not sure what those two could've gotten up to while we were talking…"

"Probably something stupid, like board games," Shego said with a roll of her eyes.

"If they are, we can always join them," Kim noted as she tried and failed at a teasing tone.

"Very true!" Anne agreed enthusiastically.

"Ugh. You're both dorks." Shego carefully wiped a hand down her face. Sighing, she allowed, "Maybe if it's Cartel I'd be game. Doc's easy to beat in that, and his reactions are _hilarious_ to watch."

"Well then…" Her redheaded mom began walking away, down the hallway that led to the lair's scheming room. "Let's go."

Kim swallowed as she automatically followed her mom, with Shego trailing behind. Drew wasn't stable most of the time. Add her other dad into it? It was just _asking_ for trouble. What had her parents been thinking? Were they really that worried about her?

In almost no time they were just outside the villainous equivalent of a study. To Kim's worry, even from where they were she could hear the raised voice of Drew. Not quite to where she could hear what he was saying, but enough to tell he was angry.

Kim silently turned her head towards Shego, who had done the same to Kim. A moment passed before Shego gave a minute nod.

"Ya might wanna stand back, Anne…" Shego cautioned as she strode towards the door. "Sounds like Doc might be off his rocker."

Anne looked worried, but complied as she took a step back against the wall.

Kim sidled up to one side of the door, while Shego took post on the other side.

"Ready, Cupcake?" Shego murmured, her hand grabbing onto the handle.

"No worry. I'm just hoping my dad is okay," Kim replied.

Shego nodded, very slowly turning the handle. Then, almost as if they were one, they both rushed through the now-open door and took defensive positions.

"..-ling you, James, not _everyone_ needs to be led around by the nose!" Drew stood over Kim's more normal father, snarling with wicked teeth and vines flailing in waves around him. He would've looked more terrifying if he hadn't been wearing an oversized dress, a turquoise affair that Drew begrudgingly accepted the week previous.

Yet even with the frightening intimidating man towering over him, James calmly sat in the leather chair positioned just so in front of a dead fireplace. The only sign that he was stressed at all was the pipe he was smoking.

Evenly James replied, "There is no such thing as 'subtext', Drew. There is no 'reading between the lines' on this. The captain and the science officer had nothing but _friendship_ between them."

"You've always been so small-minded on these sorts of things. _Not everything should be outright said_ ," Drew insisted. "There's a _tension_ between them, and you _cannot_ tell me there was nothing in the mating ritual episode!"

"I-.." James' eye seemed to catch the two women in his periphery as he then turned to them and exclaimed, "Well hello there! Did everything get figured out?"

Drew also turned to look at them, albeit more nervously.

Kim blinked a couple of times before relaxing her stance, feeling almost silly with the pose she had taken. Shego had stealthily slid into one of her bored expressions, picking at her nails as if nothing was happening. The redhead couldn't help the flush of indignation at it. That sneaky…

Kim's thoughts were cut off when Shego said, "Yeah, I think we got everything figured out."

"For the most part…" The redhead looked at her biological father and swallowed. He… He was never going to be better. Not like how she was thinking. Tears bit at her eyes again, but she managed to squash it by suddenly taking interest in the fireplace. "I… I'm going to go back to school."

"That's a start," Drew lisped, nerves clear in his tone.

"It's _fine_ , Drew. No one's upset at you," Shego said, rolling her eyes.

"I, erm…" Drew huffed a few times, then glowered at the floor.

"I didn't mean to make you guys worry," Kim said with scrunched eyes. "I just… Wanted to help."

" _You're_ more important!" James and Drew said at once. They shared a look. James then laughed, while Drew crossed his arms and grumbled under his breath.

"Kimmie has something she needs to take care of," Anne said from behind Kim, almost making her jump. At Drew's questioning look, the older redhead supplied, "Ronald."

The mutated man stared. "...who?"

This time it was Kim who rolled her eyes. "My fiancé. The man I'm going to marry. The man…" Kim sighed "...that I was ferociously unfair to."

"He probably deserved it," Drew said both loudly and under his breath.

"Well?" Shego made a shooing motion at Kim. "You'd better hop to it."

The young redhead turned to leave, but was struck by a random thought. Turning back around, she asked, "What in the world are you four going to do now?"

A wicked smirk crossed Shego's face. "Oh, nothin' much. Just view a few of my memories. Like our dear little girl's first bath."

At the agreeing nods of the other three, Kim awkwardly muttered, "Ah."

It was _so_ weird, but at least they all seemed happy about it.

"Okay. I'll see you guys later!" Kim forced more assurance into her voice than she felt as she walked out the door to head to the hanger.

Behind her she could hear Drew start, "Now James, we can get back to your _atrocious_ understanding of storytelling…"

Eventually the sound of his voice faded. Kim stopped in the main living area and took a calming breath.

It… It wasn't fair. Everything. She was a good person, her family were, for the most part, good people… What had they done to deserve this? Life-destroying calamities, striking over and over. It wasn't right.

Drew didn't deserve this. Selfishly, _Kim_ didn't deserve this. No one deserved this.

...but it was their reality. It would take a while, but eventually they would be able to scrape together some sense of normalcy from it all. Things would go back to a new normal.

She just hoped Ron could forgive her.

* * *

Kim sat, waiting in Ron's attic room for her fiancé to return. Where he was, she didn't know. Hopefully he wasn't doing anything rash like going on a crazy dangerous mission that would make him go all out with Spinning Tops of Doom and McHenry laser grids and-..

She cut her thoughts off. No. He wouldn't do that. If either of them would do that, it would be her. Trying to get lost in the rush to ignore things in her life that she didn't want to think about.

He was probably at Bueno Nacho. It would make sense. It was… Friday? She lost track of the days with the focus on helping her dad, but she was pretty sure it was Friday. Ron night. The night that was and had always been reserved for the two of them to hang out together.

Kim bit at her lip. She hadn't been around for the last few Ron nights either, with her obsessive focus on helping Drew recover. It was ferociously unfair of her to have done that to him. Then shut him out when he tried to help.

...no. Not just shut him out. Lash out at him, like it was somehow his fault.

She ran through the starting part of her apology for about the fifth time when she heard Rufus' excited chittering. Her heart skipped a beat. It was time. Time to face the music. Her mistakes. Hurting Ron.

"..-know, it's crazy awesome that they gave us extra, isn't it?" Ron's voice carried up to her from below. Then, with a few skipped steps he was in front of her, his back to her. To Kim's confusion he was in his Smarty Mart uniform. As expected in contrast he held a bag of Bueno Nacho in his hand.

"Mhm! Yum!" Rufus said, his little head nodding up and down. The naked mole rat skittered around on Ron's shoulder before apparently catching sight of Kim. He did a double-take, then nibbled at his claws. "Oh boy."

"Hm?" Ron caught on to his buddy's distress and said, head turning to where Rufus was staring at Kim, "What's got you worked u-.." He cut off the second he saw his fiancée. Nervously, a little flatly, he said, "Oh."

The speech she rehearsed in her head several times flew out the window when his warm brown eyes cooled at her. It was a sting, a deserved sting, to her heart.

Lamely she said, "Hi Ron."

He looked away. Then she looked away. Feet scuffed at the floor as they both seemed to struggle with what to say.

Finally Kim blurted, gaze again turning to stare at him, "Why are you wearing your Smarty Mart outfit?"

"What?" He looked down at himself, looking almost as surprised as her for a moment. "Oh! Right! Uhm, I picked up an extra shift tonight. 'cause, y'know, I didn't think…" The blond gestured between the two of them. "Kim night and all…"

"Right…" She turned her eyes away from him again, mind trying to scrabble onto the words that had been in her head mere moments ago.

There was only one sentence that she could remember.

"I'm sorry."

She took a quick glance at Ron. He was looking at her, surprise clear on his face. It prompted her to practically vomit out everything.

"I'm so sorry! I just-.. I was so worried and upset and needed to help Drew, and I was trying to ignore that he won't be the same, and I didn't want to think-.." Her throat closed up, and she was caught off guard by the fact that she was crying again.

She almost flinched when Ron was suddenly in her face, wrapping her into a tight hug. He began to soothingly rub her back, pulling her close enough to let her bury herself in his shoulder. She selfishly took it, rubbing hard into him with her face as she again began to cry out her grief. Her mouth tried to make words, but all that came out was muffled nonsense.

It was a good several minutes later - five, ten, Kim didn't know - that saw her finally calm down. The entire time Ron was uncomfortably crouched over, letting her hug him for all she was worth and wet up his uniform. Her Ron, great and weird and dependable…

"I don't deserve you," Kim mumbled into his neck.

"KP, are you kidding?!" Ron recoiled and nearly laughed. " _You_ don't deserve _me_?! You _do_ realize it's the other way, right?"

She shook her head. "No. It isn't." Her hands cupped his face. "You're far too good for me."

Ron's brow crinkled. "Kim…"

"I was trying to avoid the truth. That Drew… It won't, can't go back to how everything was. You tried to help me and I…" her head shook again "I took it out on you. You didn't deserve that. I am behind you. I do need to get better. But…" She sighed. "I'm wrong. With how I was acting. And I'm so, so sorry for it."

Ron was quiet for a moment.

"KP. I can't pretend the stuff you said didn't hurt. Some of it hurt. A lot." Kim winced, thinking on several of the things she'd said. "Like, it's stuff we're definitely gonna have to talk about. But…" he looked her clear in the eyes, the returned warmth making her heart quiver "...I forgive you. You're way beyond stressed, and are really obviously trying to do the overcompensating thing you tend to do."

"Overcompensating?" Kim said with a chuckle. "That's a bit of a five-dollar word."

"You like it? Totally been working on my armchair psychologist schtick." He hopped up and excitedly ran over to his desk. Proudly he picked up a book. To Kim's surprise, it was the same book she'd been reading back when she blew up on Ron. Shrugging, he said, "This is all really important to you. I want to help! So, I figured why not catch up on what you've been reading?"

Her throat tightened up, this time for a completely different reason. She choked out, " _Ron_ …"

Then she hopped to her feet, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, and dipped him into the most intense kiss she had ever given him.

It was like fireworks. All the love and care and kindness and every last little wonderful emotion she had burst out in appreciation of her Ron. _Her_ Ron. The Ron that always tried his best to make her happy, even when she made it practically impossible.

She caught a quick "Aww" from somewhere. It was probably Rufus, which was no big.

What felt like a forever later she pulled him back up. Flush with love and happiness, she murmured, "I love you."

He gave her his wonderful goofy smile and replied, "I love you too, KP!"

Relief rushed through her when she finally realized she hadn't completely screwed it up. Ron still loved her, neuroses and all, and was still her partner.

Partner. She'd been a terrible partner, in several meanings of the word. Her A-game was now more of a B-. It would take work, but she would get better.

They were together. Thick and thin, with now just being a big bump in their road. An unbeatable team. For forever and even after that.

* * *

 **A/N:** Like I said in the previous chapter, this one and the previous one are heavily linked.

Don't forget that there's a tv tropes page for this to add to if you're bored. And don't forget about the Fannies!

This might be it for a while. Next chapter is gonna be a doozy for me. Going to try and balance comedy and drama. Wish me luck!


	19. Ron and Drew

It was fine.

"I-.. I-.." A snort from behind Ron was followed by the sound of something dragging.

All of it was _totally_ fine.

"No! Ugh!" Shego stood to Ron's right, partially sitting on the couch's armrest . "You should do what you _want_ to do!"

There was absolutely positively nothing wrong with this scene.

"I _am_ doing what I want to do!" Drew said peevishly. "It just so happens that I want to do whatever you want me to!"

Nope. Not at allllll.

"That's just rationalization, Dad," his KP sighed. "You're trying to justify your irrational need to do whatever anyone says."

"I-.. I can't-.." The sound of something being tapped together echoed through the room. A small, barely hearable whisper reached the blond's ears. "If Lord Gemini finds out…"

"...I think we're done for the day." Shego stood up and walked towards the center of the room. Ron finally felt okay enough to look at what was up.

Drew stood in the middle of the room, twiddling his fingers nervously as his vines wavered about around him. Today he was wearing his oversized gray jogging clothes, though it would probably be the last day he did. The thighs and back were all shredded up from his spikey bits cutting through. Next to him was a wooden crate. KP had said that they use props in their work to try and fix Drew. It was just a little weird. A crate. Where did they even get that sorta stuff?

Kim rubbed her head a good several feet from Drew. Enough distance that dodging any incoming vines would be pretty easy. Luckily that was happening less, though they still hadn't gotten Drew to stop. Just, stop doing the flaily vine stuff and stuff.

He then looked at Shego who was, for some reason, studying him from next to Drew. It made him nervous. Heeby-jeebies and all that.

"Hi?" he squeaked out, trying not to shrink back from her intense gaze.

"So, Sidekick…" A frown tugged at her mouth. "I've noticed a little something weird. About you."

"About me?" Welp, this would end badly. What did he do that was weird that he normally didn't do? Did he forget to shower again? KP normally reminded him. He was pretty sure he'd done it recently…

"Y'see, when we do our little sessions, you act funny." Eyes narrowed in clear judgment.

Ron wasn't quite sure what she meant. "Like, funny ha-ha, or…?"

She stared at the blond with a strange look on her face. Then, voice raised, Shego practically demanded, "Why do you keep looking away?"

"Eh?" His head tilted.

"During our work. You look away like it's something awful." There was a hint of accusation and something else that he couldn't quite pinpoint.

"I, I just feel like this is a really close family thing," Ron gulped. "And Drew doesn't like me, and, uhm…"

"Then _why_ exactly are you here?"

That was an easy answer. "Moral support and another thinking tank! You never know…" Ron nodded sagely. "I might be the one to break those mental blocks." He paused, then reluctantly added, "And we were totally running late from a mission. Dropping me off would've taken too long."

"I don't get why Drew isn't okay with always having Ron over more," Kim grumbled, giving her dad the stink eye.

"Because he's a _buffoon_ ," the blue guy replied.

"Right…" Kim sighed, then said, finger wagging at Drew, "You and Ron are a lot alike. If you actually _gave him a chance_ I think you would be pleasantly surprised at how much you like each other! I mean, you two got on pretty well when we all hung out together at the North Pole."

"Extentutating circumstances!" he snapped back.

"I think you mean 'extenuating'," Shego said with some sass.

"I'm not an Englist and you know it!" Drew hissed, eyes narrowed. With how red his eyes were and his freaky weird tongue that Ron caught glimpses of every now and then it felt like a LITERAL hiss.

Ron was resisting cringing at the hostile exchanges. KP has told him that her dad was kinda mean after their sessions, but this was a little beyond mean. Downright nasty is what Ron would call it!

"Look. Doc. Calm down." Shego pat-patted his arm. "It's all fine. You're safe. Things are good. Just…" A bit of defeat tinged her voice. "I dunno… Bake cookies or something?"

Drew grumbled wordlessly and crossed his arms. He then turned and stomped towards the little kitchen that was in the Canadian lair.

It was quiet for about a minute after he stalked off. Then Shego shook her head, walking over to the couch to sit down. She sat on the opposite side, as far away from Ron as could be. Kim joined them, sitting down between the two of them. His fiancée gave him a small stressed smile and took one of his hands in her own. To Ron's worry, she was shaking slightly.

"Well…" Ron nervously chuckled. Hoping to boost the mood, he added, "At least he didn't throw it?"

" _This_ time," Shego snorted.

"Yeah…" Kim bit her lip and looked down at the floor.

"Ah."

Well, _that_ was a failure of epic proportions.

They all sat quietly. Very quietly. _Awkwardly_ quietly. It was a quiet that made Ron super nervous. He was suppressing his nervous tics as best he could; it just wouldn't be cool to start hyperventilating when everyone else should be the ones panicking.

Then Shego's phone began blaring like a fog horn.

"Ah!" She pulled it from her leg pouch and turned the alarm off. "I guess that was actually pretty good timing!" Her arms stretched above her before she stood from the couch. "Sorry kids, but I gotta go."

"Go?" Ron, Kim, and Rufus asked at the same time, his buddy having just woken up from the noise of the alarm.

"Yup! Got a video conference to attend. Gotta do my 'college qualifying interview', whatever that means." Shego rolled her eyes. "I already got stuff set up in the study, so I just gotta be on time."

"Ooooookay…?" Kim said, clearly just as confused as Ron. "Why didn't you bring this up before?"

"Because I needed someone to keep an eye on Drew and I didn't want to give you a chance to say no," the former villainess answered easily.

"I could've maybe had plans after his therapy session!" KP complained.

"Same here!" Ron echoed, feeling left out.

"Yeah!" Rufus threw in.

"But you don't, do you?" Kim's mom said with a smirk. "Today was your dedicated world-saving day, after all."

Kim puffed out her cheeks and frowned but didn't say anything.

"See? It all works out." Shego gave an easy shrug and began walking off. "It shouldn't take too long. Maybe a half-hour or so, maybe less. Just make sure your pops doesn't bake some sentient monstrosity, will ya? 'kay, thanks, bye!"

"But-.." Shego was gone before Kim could get anything else out. The redhead grumbled under her breath as she flopped back against the couch. "Great."

"You seem weirdly bummed out, KP. Don't you _like_ spending time with Drew?" Ron asked, confused. She was acting like it was a chore!

She flinched before saying, "Well, yeah, I do, but…" A sigh escaped her lips. "After a session, he's very… Delicate. It really can be like babysitting. Except the baby can throw you into the wall with one wrong word."

"Ah. Sooooo…" Ron motioned towards the kitchen. "Should we go assume our babysitting duties?"

"...yeah. Probably should."

They both got up from the couch and started towards the kitchen. They made it to the doorway before Kim paused and blinked.

"You know what? I actually have something I can do while making sure he doesn't fly off the handle. Some extra credit work. Have my homework in the car. Be back in a minute with it!" She gave Ron a peck on the cheek. "Go on ahead. He'll probably already making those cookies."

"Uhm, okay? Just a minute, right?" Ron gulped. He didn't like being alone around Drew. He still had a scabby bit where his horn had stabbed him, and the blond just all around felt bad about not being able to help.

"Yup! You'll barely even miss me." With a nod, his girlfriend skipped off in the direction of the hanger.

"...okay. You can do this. Everything will be fine," Ron coached himself as he kept walking for the kitchen. "Just 'cause the last time you two had one-on-one time things were on a bad road doesn't mean things will be the same. Right? Right. It'll just be for a minute, anyway…"

* * *

Kim dug around in the back seat of her car. She could've sworn that she'd tossed her ethics textbook in her car. She'd planned on doing some homework later on in the day. It should be-..

Suddenly her Kimmunicator burst to life. In the holographic video sat Wade, drinking a soda per usual. He was lazily typing away with little care for the world. Must've been a pretty boring day all-around.

"What's the sitch?" Kim asked, curious. It had been quiet on the world-saving front that day. Maybe something big was going down?

"There's a hit on the site," Wade said, strangely bored. "Nothing, really; just some lost hikers in your general area. Just a couple minute flight from you was where they were last seen."

Oh. Not exactly the world-shattering event she was expecting.

"So they need an extra set of eyes?" Kim murmured in thought.

"Pretty much." He shrugged. "Flying around from your vantage point? Should be super easy."

The redhead thought about it for a minute. It was an easy mission. Absurdly easy. Two minute flight there, a couple of minutes to search, two minute flight back… Easiest mission she'd had in weeks.

But…

She was supposed to watch Drew and make sure he didn't do anything reckless, or have a freak out that might get him in trouble with GJ. Kim knew that there was a close eye being kept on the situation. In fact, to her frustration, odds were that Doctor Director had enough clues to piece things together. The woman wasn't stupid.

So, she couldn't leave Drew alone.

...wait. Ron. Ron would be there. So it wouldn't be like he was alone. And Shego was just a few rooms down! That didn't really matter as she knew that she could depend on Ron. Heck, they might not even notice she was gone! Easy peasy mission? No big! Just a quick in and out. A few minutes would be nothing.

And it would give her some much-needed practice. Ron could do it himself no problem. She should be able to do the same.

"...okay. I'll take it. Ron's busy right now, but for this? I don't need to bother him. So…" She hopped into the front seat and turned her car on. "What are the coordinates?"

* * *

Ron quietly sidled his way to the kitchen. He was being slow, methodical. Drew was super on edge. And he didn't like Ron. So the blond surprising him was a baaaaad idea.

Shortly, after a minute of scraping himself along the wall, he found his way to the kitchen. Ron peeked around the doorway to see what was going on. Get some recon to mission control.

Drew was standing in the kitchen, staring at the counter. Laiden on it were a variety of ingredients: flour, butter, sugar… But that was all he was doing. Staring, like it would magically transform into baked goods. Not moving a muscle. Even his flowers were perfectly still!

It was a liiiiiiittle freaky.

KP said she would be right behind him. Any second now she would come back. Why shouldn't he wait until she came?

...he'd agreed to help watch Drew. It wouldn't be fair to pile it all on Kim. He could at least figure out what in the world Drew was doing.

With that in mind, the blond took a careful step into the kitchen. Drew didn't even acknowledge him, his focus still on the ingredients.

Ron coughed.

Drew tensed up a bit, some of vines turning to 'look' at him, but otherwise there was still no reaction.

Maybe he should be more direct?

"Soooo… Whatcha doin'?" Ron inquired, taking a short step towards the mutated man.

"I'm waiting," Drew grunted.

Ron waited a few moments for anything more. When it was clear the blue man wasn't going to say anything else to that, he asked more intently, "For _what_? You know that stuff can't bake itself!"

The other man growled in frustration. "Shego told me to bake cookies, but she didn't say what kind!"

"Ohhhh." Well, that had an easy answer! "You should totally bake hamantaschen!"

"Hamantaschen… The Jewish cookie? Baking that outside of the holidays?!" Drew gave him a look that Ron was pretty sure meant that he thought Ron was dumb. "That's ridiculous! I don't have any preserves except blueberry! And why would Shego want _that_ kind of cookie?"

" _Everyone_ likes hamantaschen. And blueberries will be fine!" Ron skipped over to the counter, the idea of the traditional cookies exciting him. "Here. I'll totally help! Let's bake those cookies together!"

Drew shuddered and snarled, but apparently decided to listen to Ron as he suddenly pulled cream cheese from the fridge and the preserves from the shelf. He slammed them down and grabbed a bowl from the shelf. Seeing that he had that part under control, Ron nodded and went over to the oven.

He turned it on to the perfect temperature for cookies and cheered, "Booyah! Totally makin' some awesome food!" Drew sneered at him but said nothing as he began measuring things out the wrong way. Like, a scoop too much of flour and half a stick too little of butter bad! Ron's eyes widened as he cried out, "Dude, you're doing it wrong!"

A snort erupted from the blue man. "I'm following my family's recipe. Passed down through _five_ generations!"

Ron tilted his head and uttered, "Okay, the recipe I've got is from a box. But!" He raised a finger in the air. "I bet it's still a better recipe! Awesome taste!"

"Nnnnngh…" Drew's teeth clicked together. "You think your box mix recipe is better than generations of Lipsky perfection?"

"C'mon! You haven't even tried it!" Ron complained.

"You haven't tried mine either," the other man said flatly.

"Okay, so, compromise. We'll bake _my_ recipe first, then if you still think yours is better we'll bake yours," the sidekick suggested.

"Nnnnngh…" Drew clenched his fists and flowers, shaking for some reason, before he emptied out the mixing bowl in a huff. "Fine! What's your so-called 'superior' recipe?"

"Good!" Ron tapped a finger to his head as he tried to remember the ingredient amounts. "I think it was four cups of flour… One cup of sugar… Two bars of butter…"

* * *

Shego was resisting letting her eye twitch.

"And your father, you said he was a mechanic? Did he go to school at all?" the snobby wench on the other end of the video call asked in a high-and-mighty voice.

"He was both self-taught and apprenticed," she answered, managing to keep the snark out of her voice.

Again the woman's face twisted in distaste. Just like it had for most of Shego's answers.

"You don't seem to have much of a pedigree," the woman said as she adjusted the off-kilter bun her hair was in.

"Yeah, I'm not much of a quality bitch," Shego couldn't stop herself from saying.

The woman looked taken aback, then coughed. "...I suppose we both just had a verbal faux pas."

"Let's roll with that," the green woman said, trying to relax at the persnickety woman's sudden admittance of fault, even if it was on both of them.

This was _not_ what Shego had imagined this little interview would be like. Instead of basic general questions about her GPA and other boring school stuff that could be wrapped up in no time flat, they were doing a _literal_ interview. Digging into the nitty-gritty of her life, back to her grandparents even! Jobs, backgrounds, qualifications… If she had realized it would be like this, she would've reconsidered going to Upperton. But she had already started it all. Might as well coast to the end.

As the other woman looked through her papers, apparently trying to get back on track after those verbal hiccups, Shego checked the clock on her monitor.

Ugh! A half-hour already? They hadn't even gotten to talking about Shego yet!

It was a good thing she'd tricked Kimmie into watching Drew. At this rate it might take at _least_ another hour before this stupid thing was wrapped up!

"So, Miss Shego, I see that you have four brothers…" The other woman was looking very intently at the paper in her hand. Probably trying to keep from looking at the green woman at all. "What are their current occupations?"

"Three of them are bums leeching off of the city," Shego said bluntly. "The fourth is the manager at a Bueno Nacho."

The woman blinked a few times, then looked at Shego with a confused gaze. "It says here they're a superhero team. Team Go."

An eye roll escaped from Shego's control. "Yeah, that too. But they're mostly bums."

"So…" Suddenly the woman was looking around like she was afraid of getting caught doing something. Then, her eyes bright and excited, she asked, "Does that mean you were a superhero too?"

That was… Strange. What was this lady's deal?

"Yeah, when I was a _kid_ ," she snarked in reply.

A gleeful chuckle burst out of the interviewer. Practically bouncing in her seat, she rushed, "You fought bad guys and put them in jail! Ohhh, that's so _exciting_!" She leaned into the camera, all her attention focused on Shego. "Tell me what it was like! Fighting crime by night, going to school during the day… It must have been _so much fun_!"

Ohhhh boy. She was one of _those_ people. Superhero groupie. How dumb could you be?

...but this was something Shego could capitalize on. The woman was _clearly_ enamored with the idealized superhero life. Probably never even thought about the grim realities of no sleep and bad grades from no time to do homework, not to even start on all the injuries and close calls. It didn't matter, though; all Shego had to do was feed into her fantasy. It was pretty obvious she was striking out most of the interview. If she could just hook this woman with her superhero past…!

"Oh yeah, tons of fun," Shego said, not managing to keep all of the sarcasm from her voice. Thinking back on some of her tamer so-called 'adventures', she started, "One of my favorite takedowns was this big ol' convention thing that a group of villains threw once in Go City. Just, _so_ dumb. What kind of villain with half a brain would go somewhere that heroes would know you would be at? Anyway, we split up to surround the building…"

* * *

Kim growled in frustration as she took a quick glance around the boulder she had ducked behind. She pulled back just as an energy blast hit where she had been peeking, sending shards of rock splintering across the area. Looking back to check on the climbers, she was relieved to see that they were still calm, albeit understandably worried.

She pulled up Wade on her Kimmunicator and said hostilely, "'It's just a couple of hikers' you said. 'Couple minute mission'. Right? Just a few minutes?"

Wade cringed and defensively said, "How was I supposed to know they were Dementor's targets and they were trying to dodge him until their project was approved? The request only said they were lost hikers! I couldn't tell that Dementor made the request!"

Kim and the two hikers had been pinned down in a small crag. Dementor and his henches had positioned themselves at the opening, not even bothering to take cover with how well they had everything covered. It was a pretty sticky situation they were in. The redhead could've REALLY used a hand from her beau.

"Hyu vould be BETTER OFF giving up, yah, Freulein?" she heard Dementor call out. "It vould make things SO MUCH EASIER if hyu just handed over mine hostages."

"Ugh!" Kim tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I wasn't supposed to be gone _this_ long!" She looked into her backpack, pulling out her sticky lipstick and a newer gadget, a miniature energy shield. "We should really have a way to vet who uses our site."

"It's on my to-do list," Wade agreed, exasperated.

Kim let her head fall against the boulder as she simultaneously thought on how to get out of the current sitch and the mess she left behind. "I completely blew it this time."

"They don't have you yet! I know you can get out of this, even without Ron and Rufus."

"Not that." She sighed through her nose. "Shego left me in charge of Drew and I botched it. Got caught up in proving myself that I let them down."

Wade gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sure they'll understand."

"They'll never leave me in charge again."

"Uhm, no offense," one of the hikers said, nervously looking between the boulder and Kim, "but could you maybe angst when we _aren't_ at risk of getting dusted?"

"Okay, fine. I get it." Kim shook her head and gave Wade a bitter smile. "I guess the only real good thing is that Shego should be done with her interview now. I remember mine; a total breeze!"

"So, you have a plan?" Wade asked.

"Yup. Gotta go. Need both my hands for this."

"Good luck!" With that, Wade shut the connection down.

"You two make sure to _stay put_ ," Kim ordered the two hikers. One, the complainer, nodded hesitantly after a moment while the other did so enthusiastically. She took position as a sprinter on a race track would. Her entire focus was on calculating and imagining the various trajectories she would need to make her way safely through the veritable minefield that was the armed henchmen. She hoped her excellent memory of the little she saw of the crag was right.

A few seconds' pause, making sure it was total silence, before she kicked into action. She launched herself ahead, from behind the boulder to the jagged wall a good dozen feet away. Before the henches could react, she kicked off from that rock across the way to the opposite wall, gaining a good ten feet between the villains and herself.

"Vhat are hyu vaiting for?! SHOOT HER!" Dementor screeched, hoisting his own laser grenade launcher into action.

At the call of their boss, the dozen or so henches resumed shooting. Each of their blasts were simply too slow. Mistimed in catching the heroine. She zig-zagged her way through the small rocky valley, never stopping and continuously jumping between the walls. In a couple of breaths she was in punching range. A quick powerful flip from the last section of wall saw her bringing a hammer kick down on the nearest hench...

* * *

"Yum!" Ron's mouth was watering as he pulled the fresh batch of cookies from the oven. Carefully he set the hot sheet on the stove. Rufus began blowing on them, clearly wanting a few for himself.

Drew stood back, grumped up and annoyed. "Now that we've made your monstrosity of a cookie recipe, can we make mine?"

"Oh! Uh…" Ron fought the flush as he admitted, "Yeah, I totally dropped some sticks of butter on the floor when we were trying to cream it. I don't think there'll be enough to bake yours."

A vein, big and scary, poked out the side of Drew's head. "What."

Ron desperately redirected, "We don't need those cookies! These will blow your mind!"

Rufus was now nibbling on a cookie. He looked at Drew and gave a big fat thumbs-up.

"Nnnnngh…" Drew shoved Ron out of the way and snatched up a cookie. He unceremoniously tossed it into his mouth and began chewing. Ron still had no idea how he could eat with those monster teeth. He made a spitting motion and growled, "Just what I expected! Trash!" A sneer was directed at Ron. "No surprise considering it was one of your recipes!"

 _Another_ swipe at Ron! The entire time they were waiting, if it wasn't awkward silence it was a dig at Ron. No interruption at all.

...well. They were alone, he was curious… Why not ask?

"Okay, dude, I think maybe we could, uh, talk about the elephant in the room..." Ron knew he was abusing the power he had over Drew. But there was no other way he could get the answer. Only Drew knew it, after all. "...what's your damage with me? You, like, constantly harp on me and how I'm not good enough for Kim. I mean, like, yeah… Ditto, that's an inside-my-head thing and you make it an outside-my-head thing so what gives?"

Drew shook again, his teeth clicking loudly. His eyes were squeezed shut like he was trying to ignore Ron. "Nnnnnngh…"

"C'mon… Ya gotta tell me!" The blond nudged Drew in the side with an elbow. The other man flinched away, his vines encircling him protectively as he shook harder.

Ron frowned. Man, it must be pretty big with how the other man was acting! Some kind of huge secret. Something that-..

A flash went through Ron's mind.

"Oh no… Don't tell me…" Eyes wide, he postulated vaguely, "KP and I are secretly siblings!"

Drew froze, a strange look of bafflement crossing his face. Then, uncurling and snarling, he said, "What?! I realize you're a moron, but that's almost unbelievable at how dumb you are."

Ron dropped the idea instantly, then picked up his second most likely one. "Am I one of your secret projects using time travel somehow?"

" _No_!" Drew's fists were balled up and the vines were now grabbing random objects and crushing them into misshapen piles. "Time travel is _stupid_! Practically _impossible_ without some magical doohickey manipulating the fabric of spacetime."

Ron slumped down, pretty much out of ideas. "I don't get it! Why don't you like me then? I'm a nice guy! KP and I fit like a glove! We're an unbeatable team!" He stood straight up and crossed his arms, deciding to try a different approach. "You need to accept that Kim and I're partners for _life_. You have _no reason_ to say n-.."

"You're like me!" Drew suddenly shouted loudly, his vines all clumping together tightly. " _THAT'S_ why I hate you with my daughter!"

Ron blinked a few times. "You hate us together… Because the two of us are alike?"

" _YES_!" The other man's teeth flashed as he gave a full-tooth snarl at Ron. "You're at the bottom of the social ladder. Stupid boy, pretending that he knows what he's doing! Poor future potential, complete idiot; it's as obvious as day that you have the same thoughts! Know the exact same thing! _BAH_!"

He slammed a fist down against the counter. To Ron's surprise, it cracked under the pressure of the hit. The blond cringed; this wasn't exactly what he was expecting.

Trying to calm Drew down, Ron assured him, "I'm not pretending at anything! I've been trying to get my life together, for me and KP's future. Passing all my classes, helping save the world… You have to give me _some_ credit!"

Drew sneered. "You'll end up doing the _same thing_ I did to Shego: dragging Kimberly down like the dead weight you are."

"Dude…" Ron scratched the back of his head. This felt like it was all over his head. Definitely should've kept a professional around when diving into the mind of a barely sane person. Shaking his head, the blond claimed, "It won't be like that! And it wasn't like that with you and Shego. No one dragged anyone down."

"Nnnnngh…"

"You and Shego totally work together. Just like Kim and I do! Two perfectly symmetrical teams! And you and Shego being together can't be all bad." Ron put a bright smile on his face as he said, "After all, you _did_ make KP!"

Drew burst out, eyes narrowed, "Oh, and that makes it better so you can date my daughter?!" He gave a heavy breath out, his tongue wavering about in the weird duel waves that freaked Ron out. The mutated man then hissed, "My daughter deserves better than a lackwit buffoon that's on par with her father!"

It was pretty obvious this was a losing battle. Whatever weird ideas Drew had about Ron seemed lodged in pretty tight. So Ron again decided to appeal to the programming. Underhanded, but it could maybe help Drew in another way? "You will accept me and KP together."

Drew's eyes widened and he began shaking again.

Ron repeated firmly, "You have _got_ to accept us as a couple. Together forever."

The blue man hunched over, now grabbing on to his horns in some form of mild panic.

The blond frowned. Maybe he was pushing this too far…? He looked to Rufus for a bit of quick nonverbal advice. The mole rat looked between Drew and Ron, nibbling his nails nervously.

...one more time. It looked like he was breaking Drew's brain a bit, but sometimes it had to hurt to get better. Buuuuuut too much hurt was a no-go. "KP and I will be a couple forever and ever. Accept it, dude!"

"I… I…" Drew's eyes were scrunched together again. Then, suddenly, they shot open as he stood straight up. Everything _screamed_ hostile in the span of a moment as he bellowed, "I do _not_ have to listen to you, you _buffoon_!"

Suddenly Ron was dodging around the small kitchen as some of his vines threw small bits of crushed-up debris at him. To his relief, it was just those little annoyances he was trying to not get hit by. Even with how angry Drew was it seemed like he still had _some_ control over himself.

"You think you can just waltz in here and _make me_ accept that you're somehow good enough for my daughter?! That, that I'll just _roll over_ and let you ruin my daughter's life!? _What in the world makes you think that_?!" Drew stomped a couple of steps towards Ron and stuck a finger out accusingly at him. "I could _never_ approve of someone as _lackluster_ as you! I don't care about what you think or want me to do! I'll-.."

Suddenly Drew froze. Completely. A goofy expression plastered itself on his face as he seemed to have a weird blue screen.

Then he laughed. A small strange strangled chuckle. It was followed by another, slightly louder one. Then, with zero warning, Drew grabbed at his face as he was overtaken by deranged laughter. His back hunched as he curled up in a laughing ball, barely able to stay standing.

This was weird. _Really_ weird. Like, what?

Ron took a teensy step towards Drew and ducked down to try and look him in the eyes. "Hey, uh, are you okay…?"

A vine suddenly grabbed him and dragged him so he was right in front of Drew. Ron activated his MMP, the blue glow cascading and flowing around him as a mystical wind lightly blew his hair around. He began to wrench himself free, when his face was grabbed and forced forward. Drew's gaze, insane and bright with a strange twitch to his lips, drilled into him. The blood red sclera and jagged needle teeth so close to Ron's face made him flinch, and he couldn't ignore the horns digging into his forehead.

" _I don't have to listen to you_!" Drew practically gushed, his hot breath washing over Ron all gross-like. "Your opinion doesn't matter in the _least_! I can do _whatever I want_ and there's _nothing_ you can do about it!" He suddenly straightened up and began waving with his hands. "I don't have to listen to you! I, I don't have to listen to _Shego_! I don't have to listen to _ANYONE_! Not even…" he whispered, almost seeming afraid to be heard "... _ **him**_."

Ron forced the vine away from him enough that he could wiggle free. Rufus was doing his part, chewing through the vine using his own MMP. As Drew was overtaken by another laughing fit, the blond broke free and flipped backwards away from the currently out of his mind man. Rufus skittered across the floor to a different side of the room, clearly ready to join Ron in subduing Drew.

After about a minute of intense laughter and vaguely flailing vines, Ron relaxed his stance. It didn't seem like the blue man was going to assault him anymore. He was clearly deranged at the moment.

That tanked! Here he was, left in charge of Drew while KP was probably in the bathroom and Shego was doing her interview thing, and he wrecked it! Totally blew Drew's mind! He was gonna be in for it when Shego got done…!

Unsure of what to do, Ron just kinda stood there, sharing a shrug with his mole rat buddy.

It was a good ten or so minutes later that saw Drew finally calming down. His insane laughter was now merely insane chuckles as he began to stand up straighter. There was a strange sort of glee on his face, a fervor that was kinda scary.

"I can do whatever I want!" Drew repeated excitedly. "Anything!" He looked around until his eyes settled on the fresh batch of hamantaschen. "Do you know what I want to do now, buffoon?"

"Uhm…" Ron squinted as he replied, "Eat cookies…?"

"No!" A cloud of vines descended on the plate of cookies. All the cookies ended up in a vine. With a vicious sneer Drew crushed every single cookie to dust. As Ron gaped in shock, the mutated man cheered, " _That_ was what I wanted to do to your _garbage_ cookies!"

Ron dropped to his knees, his heart piledrived to his stomach. Dramatically he asked, "What did those cookies ever do to you?!"

"Exist," was the simple answer Drew gave as he danced in place. The blue man paused again, then cried, "I know what I want to do!" His vines burst into action, seeming to grab a variety of ingredients from around the kitchen.

Ron ventured, mindful of the vines, "And that is…?"

Drew gave a vicious smile in reply.

* * *

Kim rolled, gasping in air as she dodged another series of blindingly fast strikes from her foe. The orange gloved fist flew by her head with a follow-up punch. She steadied herself on one of the few larger boulders in the crag as her opponent easily balanced on two smaller rocks.

A blow had yet to land, thank goodness, but it seemed more a matter of _when_ , not _if_. She hopped back to her feet and resumed a defensive posture. A snarl crossed her face as she looked at the villain in front of her.

"Hyu look like hyu are RUNNING out of STEAM!" Dementor cackled as he flexed his fist. "I vill BEST HYU, zen I vill TAKE ze scientists back to my lair vhere I vill EXTRACT ZE INFORMATION I need!"

His confidence was annoying. _Really_ annoying. Normally Dementor was about as hard to take down as his henchmen, who were all currently scattered around in unconscious clumps. But this time...

A super suit. Dementor had gotten his hands on a super suit. Not the one he obsessed over, Wade's design, but a super suit nonetheless. It was a mostly dark orange affair with strange buttons and zippers plastered about almost at random. Even though it looked strange it had definitely changed the playing field. It had shifted the battle into Dementor's favor initially with the enhanced strength and agility and had kept upping his odds since. The one-directional energy shield, while more limited than Wade's, still gave him an extra edge whenever Kim broke through his guard.

Kim was running out of options. She'd gone through all her forms, tried all the tricks she knew, used up most of her gadgets…! The only things that still had left were the sticky lipstick and the miniature energy barrier she had pulled out when she took down the henchmen initially.

How was she going to get out of this? Disappointment churned in her gut as she thought about how if Ron were here… He could do it. All of it. Himself. Why have her even bother to come along? Couldn't she do _anything_ anymore?

Dementor gave a condescending chuckle. "I can zee hyu haff GIVEN UP! Hyu are NO LONGER a MATCH for ze great PROFESSOR DEMENTOR! Especially vithout ze clown!"

...no. No, he was wrong. Kim never gave up. Ever.

She'd come close a few times. The sitch at Bueno Nacho headquarters being the closest. But in the end, Kimberly Anne Possible fought on.

As she would now.

A fire lit in her gut as she took in her options. That shield Dementor had protected him from most of her attacks while he also used it as a battering ram when she got close enough. It was hard light based like Wade's, so it acted like a force ejector. Everything bounced right off of it. The only real difference between it and Wade's shield is that this one formed at the edges first before filling everything else in that split-second of activation.

...wait.

An idea popped into her head. It was a bit of a long shot, but if she could get the angle just right…

A smirk crossed her face. All she needed to do…

Cockily Kim relaxed her stance. Shaking her head she said, "As if! You _wish_ you were on my level. Even with that suit you're just as lame of a villain as ever."

Kim was certain the veins in Dementor's neck were bulging as he growled, "VAT vas ZAT?!"

She spelled it out for him. "You're. Just. As. Lame. As. Ever."

"ARGH!" As she'd hoped, he charged her, barrier lighting up in front of him.

Kim tensed her legs. She waited one. Two. Three seconds. Just the right moment…!

When he was bearing down on her she jumped into action. Using all of her strength she leapt over the barrier Dementor had up. The barrier protected him up to a certain point to where she couldn't directly get a hit on him. But if she was fast enough…!

As she had hoped, she landed behind and past the barrier before he even registered what had happened. He began turning to counter her, but was simply too slow. She struck her leg out in a sweeping kick, hoping to knock him off-kilter enough to drop his shield.

Her leg hit home. She hooked his left leg and twisted, knocking him off-kilter. As she hoped, he dropped his shield so he could maintain his balance, dropping to a knee and one hand.

He recovered quickly, turning to Kim and reactivating the shield. In that split second, that tiny window when his shield was forming, she acted.

Her own miniature shield burst to life, cutting through and fighting against Dementor's own. It ended up a stalemate, the air open between them. A clean opening to the villain.

He gasped at her, confused, as she swiftly shoved her hand in the small gap and aimed. A quip was on the tip of her tongue but she squashed it. That sort of showboating was something she needed to get past. Instead, she simply smirked and hit the button for her sticky lipstick.

Confusion turned to surprise and shock as pink goo shot out of the small tube. Kim twisted it in as many directions as she could manage, making sure to coat him thoroughly. Both shields dropped as Dementor's limbs became completely covered and unusable.

"VAT?! NO!" He struggled in the sticky mess but found he was completely immobilized. Practically howling he screamed, "Zis iz IMPOSSIBLE!"

"No, you have that wrong," Kim said, trying to hide her heavy breathing as she walked by him back towards the boulder, now barely paying him any mind. More to herself than him, she noted, "It's _Kim Possible_ , and I can do anything."

* * *

"Don't you worry one _bit_ about your interview!" the gushing woman on the other end of Shego's video call said. "You've _aced_ it!"

"I figured as much." The former villainess resisted chuckling. Easy as pie. All she'd needed after that rough start was a few stories of her hero work and a brief look-through of her academic record. Everything before all that was completely forgotten to the ecstatic administrator.

Starry-eyed, the other woman said, "I'm _excited_ at the opportunity to see you on campus. Ohhh…!" She clasped her hands together. "First we get _Kim Possible_ , then we get a retired teen hero! Oh! Maybe it's a trend!" Her elbows locked as she suddenly cradled her face. "Can you _imagine_ Upperton being a hub of superheroes?! That would be _amazing_!"

"Yeah…" Shego checked the clock. Damn. Nearly an hour and a half. She wished there was time and opportunity to rip into this hero worshipper, but Kimmie and her buffoon would need relieved soon and she needed to stay in this lady's good graces. Looking back at the interviewer, she asked, "So, are we done here?"

The woman perked up and looked at something to her left. "Oh! Yes! Goodness, we went over by nearly a half-hour!"

Shego resisted rolling her eyes. So they had a set time for the interview and didn't bother telling her? How stupid was this process?

The woman started to reassume an air of superiority. Curtly she said, "I expect you'll hear about whether you were accepted or rejected sometime in the next month. Though…" another small excited sparkle came to her eyes "...I'll be rooting for you!" She then reached over to the computer and pressed a few buttons.

The connection broke.

Shego sat for a few moments before giving out a heavy sigh.

That was way more work than she'd expected to do. Recounting her old heroing past tended to put her in a sour mood. It was a terrible time of her life. She was glad it was all behind her.

...but the bad feelings were very much overrun by the satisfaction of knowing she pretty much had her college admission in the bag. In no time flat she would be bothering her little girl on campus.

Thinking on the various possibilities that would include, she got up to head back to the main living area. She'd left everyone alone for too long. Now she really _did_ think she should've given Kimmie a heads-up. Her and her dorky fiancé might've had a date or something planned.

Oh well. No point in worrying about it now.

Just as she walked into the large open room, Princess came rushing in from the hallway to the hangers.

She looked a bit messier than she had earlier. Her hair was a bit windswept, and her clothes had a layer of dust and grime on them now. Not to mention she was out of breath.

"Shego!" Kimmie paused in her run, stopping just in front of Shego. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back! I went on a quick mission that ended up being not so quick…"

The green woman blinked a few times. Wait. So Cupcake left. Her dork wasn't with her. Kimmie would definitely not leave Drew by himself. Which meant…

"What have you guys been doing while I was gone?" Princess asked before she took a couple of deep breaths in.

"I _literally_ just finished my interview." Shego said sharply. Waving her hand as Kimmie began trying to talk, she growled, "So what I'm getting from this is that Drew was left _alone_ with the _sidekick_ for the last however long." She glared daggers at her daughter. "I expected better from you."

Princess looked crestfallen. "...I know."

Shego sighed and shook her head. "Well, whatever. Not like we can do anything about it now." She turned to her left and began making her way to the kitchen. "C'mon. Knowing those two idiots, they probably got wrapped up in a pile of dough or something. Or, if they're not there, Drew is doing experiments that your pet idiot mentioned in passing."

Kimmie trailed behind her, clearly kicking herself for her mistake. Shego was trying to let it roll off her back, but a faint burn of resentment was roiling in her gut. She'd been carrying most of the burden of watching and rehabilitating Drew. All she'd asked for was _one_ break. One! And she _still_ didn't get it. For all they knew, the two were bloody smears on the wall!

To her annoyance, a faint glow had come to her hands at her anger. She squashed it, hoping Kimmie didn't notice.

It was down the last hallway to the kitchen that the familiar, absolutely awful music began filtering down in an echo. Shego resisted a shudder as unwanted memories danced through her head.

 _Snowman Hank_.

 _Why_ were those two idiots playing Snowman Hank music? Were they trying to rebond over it? Were they purposely trying to get on Shego's nerves?

...not Doc. Not with how he was. Kimmie's fiancé must've put him up to it.

Shego rounded the corner and stopped short. It was so sudden that Kimmie ran into her.

"Hey! What-.." Her princess cut herself off as she saw exactly what Shego was staring at.

White. There was some kind of white powder hanging on everything. The countertops, the table, the chairs… Even the stove hood had junk on it!

There were several strange types of desserts scattered across the table. A strange-looking cake, no-bake cookies, some kind of pudding, what looked to be flan…

The sidekick was standing to the side, looking nervous, just as covered in white as everything else. His pet was on his shoulder, sneezing like mad.

And in the middle of the chaos Drew was dancing and singing. He had a tray of cookies in the grasp of some of his vines as he kept tune with the music. His singing was just as bad as ever.

Shego turned an evil eye to Ron. That idiot, putting Doc up to this. The _second_ Drew calmed down she was going to roast _both_ of them!

The blond noticed the two women and cringed. "Hi! Uhm, yeah, I can explain…"

"We leave you two alone for _two hours_ and you still can't resist doing something stupid!" Shego growled. To a quick spark of confusion, Drew didn't react to her obvious expression of anger at him, continuing to hum that awful music. She spared an angry glance at Kimmie. "If you'd _been here_ none of this would've happened!"

"I know, I know…" the redhead said defensively with a note of annoyance. Her daughter walked over to the table and wiped a finger across it, coming back covered in white. "What _is_ this stuff?"

"Flour," Ron supplied. "Drew threw an entire five pound bag around the room."

" _Why_?" Shego stared at the blond.

"To make it seem like the holidays!" her husband suddenly giggled. He stopped dancing and set the tray on the stove. Then he turned to the two women, eyes sparkling.

"So, what did the dork say that made you think he wanted this?" Shego said, waving a hand around the kitchen.

"Hm?" Drew tilted his head and snorted. "Why would I listen to _him_? Ohhhh no…" A wicked smile came to his face. "I did this because I wanted to."

Shego blinked, certain she'd misheard him. "You did this… Because _you_ wanted to?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "I felt festive! And who doesn't like a little holiday spirit?"

"And nothing Ron said influenced you?" Princess seemed to understand how _big_ this was as Shego gaped at her husband.

"Oh, he _tried_. But, well, he's a buffoon. I don't care what he says."

So it was only in relation to Kimmie's fiancé? Disappointment churned in Shego's gut. She had gotten her hopes up too early.

"Whatever," she said flatly. Rubbing her head as she was starting to get a mild headache, she demanded, "Stop messing with that junk and start cleaning this mess up."

"No."

Shego stopped cold. Eyes wide, she looked back at him. "What?"

"No!" He crossed his arms as he defiantly began to pull more baking supplies out with his vines. "I don't care what you or anyone says right now! I'm baking! I wouldn't care if, if _Lord Gemini_ walked in right now. I want to bake butterless brownies, so I'm going to bake butterless brownies."

Shego stood in awe. "You're straight-up telling me no?"

"Yes," Drew said firmly, staring her down like he expected an argument.

Instead, tears biting at her eyes, Shego launched herself at him and wrapped him up in a hug.

* * *

Kim and Ron stood back as Shego buried her head in Drew's shoulder and cried quietly.

"Sorry I was gone for so long," she apologized as she took a step towards Ron. "I took on what was supposed to be a quick mission that went pear-shaped fast."

"I was _wondering_ where you were, KP!" Ron said, slapping his forehead. "I thought you got stuck on the toilet or something."

Kim blinked, then gave him a bright smile. "You're so weird."

"Never be normal," Ron agreed. He looked awkwardly at the married couple, who were now sharing a soft intimate hug. "We should probably leave them alone, huh?"

His fiancée and Rufus both nodded. KP said, "Yeah. They deserve some alone time now."

The three of them slowly backed out of the room, trying to stay as quiet as possible. It wasn't until they were halfway down the hallway that they resumed a normal walking pace.

"This is amazing," KP breathed, acting like she'd been hit in the face with a sledgehammer.

"I know, right? Things might actually start getting normal again!" Ron excitedly noted.

"Yeah. It sucks that we can't really celebrate it tonight," the redhead said sadly as they walked into the living area.

"What?!" Ron tilted his head. "Why not?"

"You _do_ realize that you'll still have to help Drew clean up the kitchen, right?" Kim asked pointedly. "That's going to take a while."

Ron paused and did a double-take at himself. He'd completely forgotten about the mess! "Awwww man! No breaks even with this awesome breakthrough?"

"Do you really think Shego would do that?"

"Nuh-uh!" Rufus answered from his shoulder.

"So much for spending some time vegging," Ron grumbled.

"It'll be fine." Kim carefully kissed him on the cheek, clearly trying to avoid the flour. "I can help out."

A bright smile latched on to Ron's face. "Booyah! Cleaning with my fiancée? That'll make it seem like hang-out time!"

KP chuckled. "It should be fine. Great, even. I mean…" she took the few steps to the wall and leaned against it "...he's getting better. This was a _huge_ step. He, he might…" a choking gasp was followed by a few tears "...he might be able to start being _him_ again."

Ron's brows scrunched together. "Yeah… Things will be amazing!"

"I was starting to give up," Kim admitted. "Nothing seemed to be working."

"Good thing I was here and not good enough for you!" he said with a laugh, walking over to stand by her.

"Is _that_ what broke the programming? Really?" Kim wiped at her eyes as she simultaneously gave an eye roll. "Ugh!"

"Hey, it's fine. All that matters is that things are going to be better," Ron said.

She gave a brilliant smile, full of hope and optimism that was all KP. "Yeah. Things will actually be better now."

* * *

 **A/N:** The finals for the Fannies are underway! This fic and the universe it's in are nominated for a TON of Fannies! Best AU Fic (S Plus D Equals K), Best Drakgo (S Plus D Equals K), Best Romance (Turkey Day), Most Unlikely/Unique (S Plus D Equals K), Best One-Shot (Turkey Day), and, the big one to me, Best Series (S Plus D Equals K series). Voting is fairly straightforward. You can either PM the KP Fannie Committee account on here or email kimmunityfannies at yahoo dot com. It's that easy! Just mark down the name of the category and the fic that you want to nominate. It's the finals! Whoo~


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